March 12, 2005
THE GOOD TRADE WAR:
Asia embraces free-trade links (Wayne Arnold, March 12, 2005, International Herald Tribune)
Rafidah Aziz, Malaysia's trade and industry minister, spent last week in the United States, drumming up trade and investment from a country with which Malaysia hopes to sign one of its first bilateral free-trade agreements.It was not so long ago that Malaysia opposed such one-to-one trade pacts, condemning them as Trojan horses for Western nations to gain low-tariff entry to the regional trading bloc being set up by the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations. Three years ago this week, in fact, Rafidah told reporters in Kuala Lumpur: "We are not interested in having bilateral FTAs with anybody."
Now, Malaysia is negotiating trade deals with both Washington and Tokyo and has proposed talks with Australia, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
"Malaysia sees no choice because it is being left out," said Manu Bhaskaran, head of economic research at Centennial Group Holdings in Singapore. "Rafidah Aziz has had to swallow her pride," he said. Rafidah was not available for an interview.
Malaysia is only joining a long and growing list of Pacific nations rushing to sign free-trade agreements with their biggest trading partners.
The Malaysians are fortunate to be talking to the most free-trade administration in our history. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 12, 2005 6:36 AM
Under Mahatir, Malaysia was opposed to importing US goods, blaming our close relationship with the 'Zionist entity.' Politicians representing the Malay majority have been campaigning on a more Muslim than thou approach since the peninsula got its independence from Britain and since Singapore left the fold. Despite intense affirmative action programs for Malays, the Chinese, about 35% of the population, run the economy.
Frankly, Malaysia is not an important place. We should take this opportunity to stick it to the ruling party, the UMNO, good and hard by forcing Malaysia to recognize Israel and contribute to our efforts in Iraq before entering into any free trade association with it.
We can get our cheap crap lots of other places.
Posted by: Bart at March 12, 2005 11:33 AM