
Trump set to announce tariff rate for Malaysia tomorrow, says Anwar
KUALA LUMPUR (July 31): United States (US) President Donald Trump will announce the new tariff rate to be imposed on Malaysia latest by tomorrow, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said.
Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, announced that it was decided via a phone conversation with Trump at 6.50am.
'We are also discussing the tariff issue on the spirit and principle of free trade. This also applies to the series of negotiations involving the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) with the US Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce.
'We hope that (the tariff decision) will not burden our nation's economy,' he said in his 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) speech in Parliament today.
The US is scheduled to impose a 25 per cent import tariff on all Malaysian goods starting Aug 1, 2025.
Anwar said Trump also expressed his gratitude to Malaysia for playing an effective and outstanding role to resolve the Thailand-Cambodia conflict.
'In my response, I said this was due to the Asean consensus and the positive attitude of both countries as well as the cooperation shown by the US, especially Trump, and (China's President) Xi Jinping,' he said.
He said the US President also confirmed his attendance at the 47th Asean Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur in October.
Meanwhile, MITI Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said Malaysia is waiting for Trump's official reply tomorrow.
'After that, a joint statement will be issued by the Office of the USTR and MITI to elaborate on the matters agreed on,' he said in a post on social media platform X today.
Tengku Zafrul posted this after receiving a call from US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer immediately after Greer briefed Trump on the issue. – Bernama 13MP Anwar Ibrahim asean Thailand-Cambodia conflict US tariff
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The Star
3 hours ago
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in June that third-country deportations allow them to deport people 'so uniquely barbaric that their own countries won't take them back.' Critics have countered that it's not clear the U.S. tried to return the men deported to South Sudan and Eswatini to their home countries and that the deportations were unnecessarily cruel. Reuters found that at least five men threatened with deportation to Libya in May were sent to their home countries weeks later, according to interviews with two of the men, a family member and attorneys. After a U.S. judge blocked the Trump administration from sending them to Libya, two men from Vietnam, two men from Laos and a man from Mexico were all deported to their home nations. The deportations have not previously been reported. DHS did not comment on the removals. Reuters could not determine if their home countries initially refused to take them or why the U.S. tried to send them to Libya. 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For a Lao man who was almost deported to Libya in early May, hearing about the renewed third-country deportations took him back to his own close call. In an interview from Laos granted on condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety, he asked why the U.S. was 'using us as a pawn?' His attorney said the man had served a prison sentence for a felony. Reuters could not establish what he was convicted of. He recalled officials telling him to sign his deportation order to Libya, which he refused, telling them he wanted to be sent to Laos instead. They told him he would be deported to Libya regardless of whether he signed or not, he said. DHS did not comment on the allegations. The man, who came to the United States in the early 1980s as a refugee when he was four years old, said he was now trying to learn the Lao language and adapt to his new life, 'taking it day by day.' 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4 hours ago
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The Star
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