By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, July 8: The United States has announced a 25 per cent tariff on all Malaysian products entering the country starting Aug 1, a move that President Donald Trump described as still “far less than what is needed to eliminate the trade deficit disparity” with Malaysia.
According to a TVS news report quoting Bernama, the unilateral hike, revealed in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and posted on Trump’s Truth Social account yesterday (July 7), comes just ahead of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first trip to Kuala Lumpur for the ASEAN-US post ministerial conference and other meetings of the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting and related meetings starting today.
The new tariff is one percentage point higher than the 24 per cent announced in April, and applies across the board, separate from sectoral-specific duties.
However, the letter also stated that there would be no tariff if Malaysia or Malaysian companies choose to build or manufacture products within the United States, adding that Washington “will do everything possible to get approvals quickly, professionally, and routinely—in other words, in a matter of weeks”.
Trump also said that if Malaysia decides to raise its tariffs, the amount imposed would be added to the 25 per cent that the US is charging.
Malaysia has been negotiating the US tariff with Washington since April, with the aim to lessen the 24 per cent tariff imposed earlier, with the latest talks held on June 18 this year. — DayakDaily
