It was less than a month ago that Prime Minister DS Anwar Ibrahim spoke emotionally about the need to build a ‘new humane international global order’, referring to the hypocrisy of leaders who preach human rights (presumably referring to the US Trump administration) while annihilating Palestinians from their land. He further referred to Frantz Fanon, asserting that even though countries have achieved independence, they continue to be subjugated because of post-colonialism, colonised elites are bankrupt of ideas and ideals, as their colonisers were 1. Who would have thought that he himself would display the characteristics of a leader bankrupt of ideas and courage to stand up to post-colonial subjugation by imperialist powers of the global north?
Malaysians watched in shock at Anwar’s capitulation when he danced along with Donald Trump during the arrival of the US President for the ASEAN Summit on 26 October 2025. But both leaders were presumably dancing for different reasons. While Donald Trump was dancing in anticipation of signing a trade deal that sealed unrestricted extraction of critical minerals from Malaysian soil and other savoury trade benefits for the US economy, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, on the other hand, was presumably exhibiting the reality of developing countries that continue to dance to the ‘tune’ of the developed countries.
The US State under Donald Trump’s bold and haughty attempt to ensnare the ASEAN chair into its economic fold during a Global South economies summit must be noted. With the Reciprocal US-Malaysia Trade Agreement, the US appears to have sabotaged the global south countries’ attempts to sit down and map out their own economic course based on the mutual prosperity of south-south cooperation by limiting Malaysia’s economic policy flexibility.
PM Anwar’s own party members have raised concerns over the agreement, especially on issues relating to Malaysia’s trade relationship with countries that might not be aligned with the US, such as the BRICS countries 2. The disagreement is due to the contentious Article 5.1 of the agreement that explicitly requires Malaysia to take similar prohibiting measures against any trade partner that the US considers a threat to its national security. Many experts have pointed out that this clause clearly undermines Malaysia’s economic sovereignty, as it forces the government to follow US rules and regulations to ‘discipline’ the global south away from an alternative economic bloc such as the BRICS.
There are multiple contentious issues in the recent trade agreement. For example, the US-Malaysia Reciprocal Trade Agreement requires Malaysia to accept US in-house certification, such as USDA and FSIS, for all 11 major food exports from the US into Malaysia without any additional requirements. JAKIM also seems to be arm-twisted, agreeing to designate and accept a US-Halal certifier to certify meat imported from the US. While Putrajaya seemed to have bent backwards to accommodate US requests, the agreement falls short of a truly reciprocal one that produces mutual benefits for our economy.
Malaysian exports into the US market will still be slapped with a 19% tariff, except for a handful of exempted products such as coconuts, bananas, pineapples, guavas, durians, coffee, ginger, turmeric, curry spices, crude palm oil, tapioca, minerals (including rare earth), pharmaceutical products, chemicals, aircraft parts, wood, stainless steel, alloy steel, electrical and electronics. On the other hand, Malaysia has cut more than 1,000 of its tariffs on US goods, providing significant preferential market access for US industrial goods exports. The US has also compelled Malaysia to exempt all its agricultural and seafood imports from the Sales and Service Tax (SST). This would mean cheaper imported fruits, nuts and seafood in our local supermarkets, increasing competition for local food producers. Furthermore, Putrajaya has committed to import 2 million litres of US milk and cream, 1 million US bird eggs, 500,000 kilograms of pork and 28,783 live swine, 30 Boeing aircraft (plus 30 optional) for Malaysia Aviation Group, 3 million tonnes of US LNG per year for Petronas, coal worth USD 42.55 million per year for power generation (TNB) and USD 119 million worth of telecommunication products and services for Telekom Malaysia 3 .
Furthermore, the US has always targeted Malaysia’s over 16 million tonnes of rare earth deposits valued at an estimated RM1 trillion to compete with China’s global dominance. Through this agreement, the US has explicitly ensured that Malaysia would not be able to impose any bans or export quotas on rare earth (RE) mineral exports to the US. Therefore, without local expertise and technological know-how to refine RE, Malaysia is forced to remain a low-value supplier of raw, unrefined RE minerals, missing out on any inventiveness to develop in-house high-value processing capabilities.
Dependency theory scholars explain this subjugation of developing economies as when “…the economy of certain countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy to which the former is subjected” 4 . They argue that through hegemonic control of the world market, ‘core economies’ (developed countries) impose surplus extraction structures that enable the transfer of surplus generated in ‘peripheries’ (developing countries) to the core. Thus, the continuous usurping of surplus values provides development to the core economies because of the underdevelopment of the periphery. While Malaysian trade ministers remain bullish about Malaysia’s current RM120 billion worth of electrical and electronic (E&E) exports to the US, which accounts for about 20% of the country’s total E&E exports, Samir Amin, the Egyptian-French Marxian economist, explains that periphery economies like Malaysia will never be able to graduate up the global value chain because the core economies in the global north have skilfully consolidated high-value strategic industrial activities for themselves. Therefore, this global division of labour (inherited from the colonial economic structure) is sustained, where periphery economies, which previously supplied raw materials, moved to manufacturing primary components for the core’s higher-end final products. This division is reinforced by the possession of technological advancement by the core, which continues to perpetuate unequal value exchange and dependency 5 .
There is a lack of comprehension among local policymakers of the manipulative and coercive tactics of the global north core economies that persistently subjugate and bind developing countries through such lopsided trade agreements, sustaining periphery economies as providers of cheap labour and natural resources. Preserving our economic and political sovereignty requires ideological clarity and courage rather than captivating rhetoric in conferences. It was truly disappointing to see PM Anwar capitulating to Donald Trump’s agenda just weeks after calling for “a new just and humane international order” as an alternative to the unbridled capitalism unleashed by the US.
Therefore, Putrajaya must reevaluate its commitments in this agreement, which has clearly eroded Malaysia’s economic sovereignty. Furthermore, it has drawn us closer to the US and away from other key economies that are truly gravitating towards a plausible ‘new international economic order’ free from US hegemonic power. We truly need to stop dancing to the music of the global north imperialists.
Sivarajan A.
Parti Sosialis Malaysia Central Committee member
29 Oct. 25
References
4 Santos, T.D. (1970) ‘The structure of dependence’. American Economic Review, 60(2), p.231.
5 Amin, S. (1976) ‘Unequal development: An essay on the social formations of peripheral capitalism, translated by Brian Pearce’, The Harvester Press Limited.