Malaysia should intensify its trade relationships with nations beyond the United States, including China, to cushion the impact of tariffs imposed by the US government, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has said.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Dr Mahathir criticised the protectionist tariff measures implemented by the Trump administration, stating that such policies would ultimately cause greater harm to the United States than to its trading partners.
“The rest of the world will suffer, but America will suffer more because all those industries which were set up by Americans outside of America to take advantage of low costs,” he remarked.
Responding to suggestions that any move to negotiate a reduction in tariffs might be construed by Washington as an admission of vulnerability, Dr Mahathir clarified that the brunt of the impact would be borne primarily by countries with significant export exposure to the United States. He emphasised that most of the international community was not implementing similar high tariff measures.
“As such, we should increase our trade with the rest of the world. With China, for example. To a certain extent, we can mitigate the effect of Trump’s high tariffs by avoiding America,” he noted.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on Malaysian exports, raising it from an initial 24% following a 90-day postponement.
In April, Dr Mahathir had told Free Malaysia Today that the wide-ranging US tariffs—ranging from 10% to 49% and affecting approximately 60 countries—were likely to backfire. He warned that the measures would result in higher prices for goods within the US, thereby increasing the cost of living for American consumers.
‘We Cannot Hold the Past Against Japan’
Separately, Dr Mahathir addressed Japan’s wartime history, urging Malaysia to move forward from the atrocities committed by Japanese forces during World War II.
Reflecting on his own experience during the Japanese occupation at the age of 16, he acknowledged the suffering endured but stressed that Japan had since transformed profoundly.
“We cannot hold their past against them,” he said, adding that Japan’s rapid post-war recovery and economic ascendancy served as a valuable model for developing nations.
“At one time, they were number two in the world. We thought that we should learn from them, we should emulate them, and we should aim to achieve what they achieved,” he added.
-FMT
