Jakarta. A senior diplomat said Monday that there was a chance for US tariffs to be on the agenda of President Prabowo Subianto’s upcoming talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as the August 1 deadline draws near.

Malaysia has only three days before US President Donald Trump officially slaps a 25 percent tariff on its goods unless it manages to reach an agreement by Friday. On the other hand, Indonesia is already free from the deadline. Jakarta already struck a deal that saw Trump officially give a double-digit cut to his tariffs on Indonesian goods, down from 32 percent to 19 percent.

Anwar has just landed in Jakarta to meet Prabowo for an annual bilateral consultation. The last time that the leaders of the two ASEAN nations held such talks was in November 2017, back when Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Mohamad Najib were still in power.

Rolliansyah “Roy” Soemirat, the spokesman at the Foreign Ministry, said that the meeting would be laser-focused on “issues of common concerns”. When asked by the Jakarta Globe whether that would include Trump’s tariffs, Roy neither confirmed nor denied the possibility.

“I can’t share the full details of the upcoming talks. But then again, if it is something of a common concern, the two leaders might discuss it [the tariffs] further,” Roy told the press in Jakarta. 

“The annual consultation is similar to other leaders’ meetings. Issues that may not be originally on the agenda may arise … So of course, if they [Anwar and Prabowo] find the [tariffs] to be a matter of importance, then it’s possible,” Roy said. 

The envoy said that the two neighboring countries had been seeking another round of annual consultation for a long time. However, Covid-19 pandemic, among others, forced the world's largest palm oil suppliers to postpone the meeting.

Trade talks are still underway between the Malaysian and the US government. 

Indonesia has made major concessions in trade with the US in return for a lower-than-threatened tariff. Southeast Asia's largest economy will lift its local content requirements for telecommunication technologies and medical devices. Jakarta has also made some multibillion-dollar import commitments, including a pledge to buy $15 billion worth of American energy products. Indonesia agreed to open up its markets to US products, even granting them zero tariffs. 

According to Reuters, Malaysian Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said that Kuala Lumpur was aiming for the lowest possible tariffs. He admitted that there were some concessions that Malaysia was unable to make, citing its detrimental impact on local industries. Even so, Kuala Lumpur was still considering every demand that could help with the negotiations. 

US tariffs had cast a cloud over ASEAN's recent foreign ministerial meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was present and even defended why his president launched his tariff salvo. Rubio told reporters at the time that the levies that ASEAN countries got were much better than other parts of the world, saying that Southeast Asia should be able to benefit from the situation.

ASEAN nations are currently subject to a 10 percent baseline tariff, although almost everyone -- except Singapore -- will soon face import duty hikes. The highest tariff in ASEAN stands at 40 percent, which hangs over Laos and Myanmar. Like Malaysia, both countries still have time until August 1 for some negotiations, according to the letters that Trump had penned earlier this month.

Media reports showed that Trump had just unveiled his plans to impose a blanket tariff between 15 and 20 percent on countries that had not negotiated separate trade deals.

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