WASHINGTON DC: Senior Minister of Internal Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said today he had the most productive bilateral meeting with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, which would enhance Malaysia-US trade and investment relations.
He said, a broad range of matters have been discussed and special attention was centred on advancing both parties shared priorities on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
“Our relationship with the U.S. has surpassed six decades and the economy has benefitted much from this. On IPEF, I assured Secretary Raimondo on Malaysia’s full support for the Biden-administration aspiration, via IPEF to advance further regional linkages towards strengthening regional cooperation.
“Guided by our purpose and values, I believe the Framework will serve as an impetus towards enhancing competitiveness, economic resilience and post-pandemic economic recovery, fostering inclusivity and shared prosperity for the region,” Mohamed Azmin said in a statement posted in his Facebook today.
In this spirit, the Senior Minister emphasized the need to include technical assistance and capacity building elements in the Framework to incentivise buy-ins from industry stakeholders. I appraised the Secretary of Malaysia’s efforts to eradicate forced labour.
Mohamed Azmin also stressed the importance of ASEAN centrality, and suggested that the U.S. should take advantage of the presence of ASEAN leaders in Washington DC to share on the IPEF initiative.
“IPEF will provide Malaysia a platform for more engagement and dialogues with the U.S. including in sharing our efforts and initiatives in line with the international labour practices.
“I took the opportunity to raise two concerns, namely, the Withold Release Order (WRO) and ongoing anti-circumvention investigation on imports of CSPV, which are important in ensuring no disruption to global supply chain. I am most encouraged by Secretary Raimondo’s positive responses to these concerns,” Mohamed Azmin said. –Malaysia World News
