PUTRAJAYA: The Foreign Ministry will be in charge of coordinating the implementation of the 31 Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) inked between Malaysia and China, says Datuk Fahmi Fadzil (pic).
The Communications Minister and government spokesperson said the decision to appoint Wisma Putra as the coordinating ministry was made by the Cabinet.
Fahmi said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has also instructed that all MoUs be realised as soon as possible.
The 31 MoUs were inked in conjunction with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s official visit to Malaysia recently.
The exchange of documents was witnessed by both Anwar and Xi on April 16.
On another note, Fahmi said Anwar would deliver a statement on the US tariff issue at the special Dewan Rakyat sitting, which is scheduled to begin at 11am on May 5.
He said MPs from both sides would debate the issue after Anwar delivers his remarks.
Fahmi added that the ministers of the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) and the Finance Ministry would wind up the debates.
“The leader of the House will send out letters to MPs (on the special sitting) officially today,” Fahmi said during his weekly press conference here yesterday.
Miti Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz and Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan are currently in the United States to negotiate with Washington on the issue of reciprocal tariffs.
Fahmi said both ministers were slated to meet with top officials from the US government on the tariff issue.
“We cannot anticipate what will be announced. We have to wait for them to come back and report to the Cabinet.
“I hope we have some information by next week on the outcome of the visit,” he said.
Except for China, President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on the implementation of reciprocal tariffs, just hours after the tariffs against US trading partners came into effect on April 9.
Malaysia’s exports to the United States were originally subjected to 24% retaliatory tariffs.
As negotiations continued, Trump said he was authorising a universal “lowered reciprocal tariff of 10%” against countries that have not retaliated.
However, on April 22, the United States announced new duties as high as 3,521% on solar imports from four South-East Asian countries, including Malaysia.
The duties are the result of a year-long trade probe that found solar manufacturers in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand were unfairly benefiting from government subsidies and selling exports to the United States at rates lower than the cost of production.
