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Malaysia eyes Africa for trade expansion as Trump’s tariffs loom
Africa, with a combined estimated US$3 trillion economy and a population of about 1.3 billion, offers potential for trade and investments
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Malaysia may seek to sell palm oil, petroleum and its infrastructure expertise to more African nations, experts say, as US trade barriers inject urgency into the hunt for new markets.
Malaysia faces the prospect of a 24 per cent duty by US President Donald Trump’s administration. Its top commerce official is set for talks in Washington on Thursday over ways to ease the pain before the 90-day tariff pause ends in early July.
But ahead of those negotiations, China – the Southeast Asian nation’s second-biggest buyer – has warned its trading partners against yielding to US demands, particularly those that could disrupt Chinese supply chains.
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That has heightened the importance of exploring new export markets. As tariff chaos affects economic plans worldwide, Uganda is hosting an expo in Kuala Lumpur to promote deeper trade and investment in agriculture, tourism, energy and minerals.
This two-day expo is the first of its kind organised by an East African nation in Malaysia, promising to provide investors with direct access to “the people shaping Uganda’s economic future”, including the finance and energy ministers.
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Uganda exports coffee and tea, and also has deep resources of gold, copper and lithium.
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