September 22, 2025
KUALA LUMPUR – Amid global challenges and uncertainties, Asean economic ministers will begin their meeting here today, with experts saying that the regional grouping should leverage on the world’s largest trade pact, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
During the course of the 57th Asean Economic Ministers (AEM) Meeting which begins today, there will be meetings held between these ministers and RCEP representatives.
Besides meetings with Asean dialogue partners, Asean member countries will also hold consultations with US trade representative Jamieson Greer to discuss issues regarding the implementation of US tariffs, with hopes of finding middle ground for industries such as semiconductors and commodities.
This will be one of their first meetings after the new US tariffs came into effect in August.
Economist Dr Yeah Kim Leng of Sunway University pointed out that pursuit of unilateral import tariffs and the US-centric economic agenda by the Donald Trump administration would mean that it is crucial for all other countries to step up trade and economic co-operation.
“This is not just to counter US policy shifting away from free trade and multi-lateralism, but also to deepen economic relationships to offset the loss of US markets and to stabilise global supply chains,” he said.
Malaysia’s current leadership role in Asean offers not only the opportunity to expand trade and investment among member countries, but also to integrate Asean with other free trade agreements where Malaysia is a member.
As such, he said the RCEP is particularly important since it is the largest free trade bloc.
“During the current Asean ministerial meetings, Malaysia is strategically positioned to stimulate interest and expand both intra-Asean and inter-regional cooperation between the region and RCEP, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and the EU,” he said.
Dr Yeah said concrete actions to expand trade and investment will be crucial to offset the uncertainties caused by Trump’s tariffs and the expected decline in trade with the United States.
At the same time, he said it is important for Malaysia to nurture a wide range of trading partners and arrangements.
“Asean is a natural focus for Malaysia to leverage and use its position as chair of Asean to ensure there is momentum in closer trade links.
“Since Asean is a key group in RCEP which includes major trading powers around Asia, pushing the trade agenda jointly is very important to maintain export markets given current economic uncertainty,” he said.
With the Asean Summit set to take place next month, and a visit from President Trump on the agenda, it is crucial to have some wins to announce on trade and “hopefully to make further progress on long-term tariff reduction,” he said.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said RCEP could act as a cushion to tariff impacts and help Asean economies diversify their markets.
“RCEP essentially involves major economies such as Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. Hence, we can hope that there will be technology transfers, more opportunities for access of new markets and improved trade linkages,” he said.
“It will be a catalyst for better coordination and above all, the buy-ins.”
Economist Dr Geoffrey Williams said as protectionist policies are now amplified, countries should collaborate for rule-based international trade which is centred on fair trade as the driving force for global integration.
He named e-commerce as one tool that has become a catalyst for international trade.
“The current protectionist policies adopted by the various jurisdictions have been amplified as the Trump administration has been leveraging on import tariff policies as a means to address the economic imbalances,” Williams said.
“In a grand scheme of things, it is a major departure from the Washington Consensus in the late 1980s where globalisation and industry liberalisation as well as free capital flows are the main selling points.
“One thing that we can learn from the current episode of protectionist policies is that globalisation has not delivered the promise for inclusive growth. So I suppose the AEM will be the catalyst for regional policy makers and politicians to really relook and reinvent how globalisation can be effectively and efficiently implemented.”
RCEP is a free trade agreement between China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the Asean member states.
Based on World Bank data in 2020, the 15 participating countries account for about 29% of the global population or 2.3 billion people.
These economies boast a combined GDP of US$25.9 trillion (RM109.6 trillion) or 30.6% of the world’s GDP and accounts for US$10.09 trillion (RM42.73 trillion) or 28.33% of global merchandise trade.