The US decided to reduce its planned tariffs on Malaysian exports after it learned of “huge purchases” of US products by Malaysian companies, according to investment, trade and industry minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz.
Tengku Zafrul said Malaysia had listed Malaysia Airlines’ planned acquisition of Boeing aircraft as among the big-ticket purchases being made from the US.
By adopting such an approach, Malaysia proved to the US that “we, too, were huge buyers of their products and this convinced them to reduce the tariffs to 19% from the previous 25%”, he said in a post on X tonight.
He said Malaysia did not buy the planes “just so we could reduce the tariffs”.
Yesterday, Tengku Zafrul said Malaysia had committed to purchasing the 30 Boeing aircraft, valued at US$9.5 billion, as one of the conditions to reduce the US tariff on Malaysian imports.
In March, Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) said it had ordered 18 Boeing 737-8 and 12 Boeing 737-10 aircraft, to be delivered by 2030, and placed an option to buy 30 more 737 aircraft.
Orders for hundreds of Boeing jets have been announced over the past week in deals with Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and other countries as part of negotiations to reduce US tariffs.
Tengku Zafrul denied that government funds were being used to purchase the planes. He said MAG would buy the planes using its own funds.
