KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — Asean and the EU should consider signing a bloc-to-bloc trade agreement to mitigate the risk posed by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the global supply chain, an academician proposed today.
Professor Volker Perthes, a senior distinguished fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, made the suggestion during a forum at the Asia-Pacific Roundtable at Hilton KL, here, today.
“Asean and the EU are like-minded on many issues, such as security, sustainability and the need for a rules-based order.
“It’s easier to start here because EU and Malaysia have the DNA for trade,” he said.
However, Perthes said the EU should temper its optimism about exporting the region’s norms to other countries, warning that the practice may not bode well with all nations.
Meanwhile, Investment, Trade and Industry deputy minister Liew Chin Tong stressed on the need for the China Plus One strategy, saying that the idea of China being the sole factory of the world was irrelevant.
The China Plus One strategy is a business model in which companies expand their manufacturing and sourcing beyond China by incorporating at least one additional country, reducing dependency on a single market for production.
He also warned that countries should not set up production bases in South-east Asia simply to continue their exports to the US, saying that such circumventions could be easily detected and countered by the Trump administration.
Malaysia currently faces a 24 per cent tariff for all goods entering the US, but Putrajaya is seeking to lower the current rate to the previous 10 per cent baseline tariff in its ongoing negotiations with Washington.
Although China is still Malaysia’s largest trading partner, the US surpassed China to become Malaysia’s largest export market after Malaysian exports to the US reached an all-time high of nearly RM200 billion in 2024.
Over 60 per cent of Malaysian exports to the US comprise of electrical and electronics (E&E) products, and semiconductors make up half of that.
Malaysia currently chairs Asean and led the first trilateral Asean-GCC-China Summit on the sidelines of the Asean Summit in May 2025.
The GCC or the Gulf Cooperation Council comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.
