In exchange for slicing the import tariff from 25% to 19%, Malaysia has agreed to purchase equipment from the U.S. for its semiconductor, aerospace and data centre sectors for the next five years, worth a total of $150 billion, according to Malaysia trade minister, Tengku Zafrul Aziz.
The minister announced in the parliament that Petroliam Nasional Berhad, a Malaysia-state company, will buy LNG worth $3.4 billion per year, while the nation will invest in the U.S. over the next five years at about $70 billion as an effort to reduce trade imbalance.
Furthermore, the Southeast Asia nation also promised to reduce its import duties on most of the U.S.’ goods, remove some of its non-tariff barriers, and allow U.S. social media platforms and cloud service providers to operate without a requirement of sharing revenue to a state fund.
Tengku Zafrul stated that the nation has achieved a reasonable result. However, last week, he stated that the U.S. has exempted Malaysia from pharmaceutical products and semiconductors export tariff before announcing today that the U.S. could still impose the tariff on semiconductors due to national security reasons.
