KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today expressed confidence that next week’s Asean Summit with world leaders will yield positive outcomes, as Malaysia attempts to navigate the global trade tension stemming from tariffs and the rise of protectionism.
The ten-member Association of South-east Asian Nations is set to meet several leaders from the G7 group in a summit that begins Sunday, including with US President Donald Trump.
Analysts believe Asean member states, some of which had been slapped with tariffs as high as 40 per cent, will likely use the meeting to negotiate a new deal with Trump.
“I’m not suggesting it would be easy. We would be meeting United States, Canada, India, China, Korea and Japan this weekend and we have to seriously deliberate on these issues,” Anwar said at the DHL GoTrade Summit 2025 here today.
“I am not underestimating the importance of such deliberations but I am cautiously optimistic that somehow rather, sanity will prevail,” he added.
US tariff rates for export-reliant South-east Asia have been set at 19 per cent and 20 per cent for most of the region. Laos and Myanmar have been hit with a 40 per cent rate, while Singapore has a 10 per cent tariff.
Malaysia was slapped with a 19 per cent tariff on nearly all imports despite months of bilateral negotiations, but some items like semiconductors are currently exempt pending a US national security probe.
Anwar said the tariffs will be a key agenda at the three-day summit. Asean member states have responded to Trump‘s so-called reciprocal tariffs individually but Malaysia, as the sitting chair, had stressed that whatever outcomes come from bilateral talks cannot be at the expense of the bloc as a whole.
“Such turbulence reminds us the importance of resilience, agility and regional cooperation. We believe that Asean must continue to embody the principal of openness and unity,” he said.
Malaysia, alongside other export-reliant countries, has scrambled to diversify its export market in response to Trump’s tariffs and growing support for trade protectionism in the West.
Putrajaya said last month the loose Asian trade bloc that includes China, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, will consider adding new members and finding ways to boost trade when its leaders meet next week.
“It is timely that Asean, and the world at large, turn their attention to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, the world’s largest trade agreement, encompassing nearly one-third of global GDP and trade,” Anwar said.
