Bid to rectify US trade imbalance PM’s pledge to invest in America will help correct deficit, says Ong

IPOH: The Prime Minister’s promise to invest in the United States will help in Malaysia’s bid to rectify the trade imbalance between both countries, says Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan.

The International Trade and Industry Minister II said it was only logical and diplomatically correct for Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to propose investments to maintain a close trade relationship between both countries.

“As we all know, President Donald Trump is very concerned about US trade deficits with many countries, including Malaysia.

“He also recently threatened to end the free trade agreement with South Korea, which is something we do not want to happen with us if things go awry,” he said here yesterday.

Earlier this year, news reports mentioned that Trump had signed an executive order that would launch a 90-day investigation of countries against whom the United States ran a bilateral trade deficit.

Malaysia was included in the list, with a reported US$ 24bil (RM100bil) trade surplus over the United States.

Ong, however, said on Malaysia’s side, they had calculated it to be a surplus of US$6bil (RM25bil) instead.

“Some products are exported through other countries in a joint supply chain, so the computation of figures might not be accurate on both sides.

“But, instead of launching a more thorough investigation into the matter, which might adversely affect our trade relationship with the US, we are taking proactive measures to rectify this imbalance by raising investment proposals,” he said.

During Najib’s meeting with Trump last Tuesday, the Prime Minister revealed that Malaysia was now exporting capital to the United States through the Employees Provident Fund, Khazanah Holdings and Malaysia Airlines Bhd.

Instead of seeing these investments offer from a negative point of view, Ong said people need to understand that the Government is also trying to make sure that the country’s trading trend will continue smoothly.

“From January to July this year, we have already achieved a total trade of over RM1 trillion.

“To ensure that this trend goes on smoothly, we try to deal with factors that could jeopardise it,” he said.