KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 — Senator Datuk Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said today that Beijing is now more eager to strengthen trade ties with Malaysia following Putrajaya’s signing of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) with Washington, despite China having expressed concerns.
The minister of investment, trade and industry told the Dewan Rakyat, while winding up the Budget 2026 committee stage debate this afternon, that Malaysia and China are expected to sign a new bilateral memorandum of understanding, although he did not disclose details about the MoU.
Just last week, Beijing issued what some viewed as a strongly worded statement expressing “serious concerns” about clauses in the US trade deal, particularly those it said could affect Chinese interests.
Tengku Zafrul, however, suggested Putrajaya had been informed in advance that Beijing would issue such a statement.
“Last week we sent a team to China where we explain our position to the Chinese team, and they told us they need to put on record — as anything geopolitical they must put it on record — that whatever that was agreed will not affect trade between our countries,” the outgoing senator said.
“So what we agreed on was OK, go ahead and issue the statement, but at the same time our team continues to negotiate. In a way, this issue (ART) has made us closer to China because now they want to sign a (new) MoU,” he added.
Malaysia is already part of several regional free-trade pacts with Beijing, the largest being the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement. The pact was recently upgraded and signed by member states at the 47th Asean Summit held here in October amid US tariff threats.
Chinese Ministry of Commerce officials had told their Malaysian counterparts that Beijing has “grave concerns” over certain parts of the deal, according to a Chinese government readout.
Beijing suggested its main worries centre on clauses in both agreements that it felt would compel Malaysia and Cambodia to align with Washington on sensitive national security matters.
Malaysia signed the controversial Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) on October 26, a deal critics said was heavily lopsided in favour of US trade interests.
Detractors also claim the deal would require both countries to adopt US trade restrictions, export controls and sanctions on sensitive technologies.
Both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Tengku Zafrul have denied the allegations, insisting the pact does not infringe on Putrajaya’s national or economic sovereignty.
