Asean members must avoid undercutting their neighbours while negotiating on the tariff issue with the US, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warned on Tuesday, as the bloc ended a summit with the economic threat of Washington’s levies dominating discussions.
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The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) met over two days in Kuala Lumpur to discuss its next steps to address the “reciprocal” tariffs that US President Donald Trump had paused until early July.
Asean leaders also discussed Myanmar’s plunge into civil war and humanitarian crisis, as well as agreeing to admit East Timor as Asean’s 11th member by October.
Anwar has pressed Washington to hold an Asean-US summit later in the year so that the bloc of 660 million people can be represented as one, a position suggested by China as it seeks allies in pushing back against Trump’s tariffs.
Four of Asean’s biggest economies – Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Anwar’s own Malaysia – have launched separate bilateral talks with the US in the hope of reducing or securing tariff exemptions for their exports to the world’s biggest economy.
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Still, Anwar, who holds the rotating Asean chair, said the bloc came to a consensus that any negotiations with Washington should not be at the expense of any member state or other countries.