Malaysia’s Anwar says trade deal with US is ‘99.9 per cent resolved’

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the nation was on the verge of wrapping up a trade deal with the US after President Donald Trump slapped hefty tariffs on its exports to the world’s largest market.

“I should say 99.9 per cent resolved,” Anwar told a media briefing in the administrative capital of Putrajaya late Wednesday (Oct 22). Any issues outstanding “will be resolved with the Cabinet on Friday.”

Malaysia and the US aim to conclude negotiations when Trump visits Kuala Lumpur later this month for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. Malaysia was hit with a 19 per cent levy on exports to the US and Trump is also mulling levies on semiconductors, a move that the South-east Asian nation has said would be concerning. BLOOMBERG