Arab News, Wed, Feb 28, 2024 | Shaban 18, 1445
Malaysia to seal free trade deal with UAE by June, minister says
Emirates:
Malaysia expects to conclude a free trade agreement with the UAE by the end of
June, the country’s trade minister said, adding the deal could boost investment
in Malaysia by the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth funds.
The countries started negotiations over a
Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement last year.
“We are in the last round of discussions,”
Malaysian Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul told Reuters on Tuesday in an interview
at a World Trade Organization meeting in Abu Dhabi.
Following the agreement, Malaysia hopes that the
UAE will invest in its energy, digital economy, electric vehicle and chip
sectors. Mubadala Investment Co., one of Abu Dhabi’s three sovereign wealth
funds, is already an investor in Malaysia.
The UAE, a small but influential nation on the
Arabian Peninsula, has signed a series of bilateral free trade agreements in
recent years, including with India and Israel. As well as removing traditional
tariffs on goods and services, deals have included preferential investment
clauses.
Tengku Zafrul said the trade deal could lead to
Malaysia becoming a hub for UAE investments in Asia.
He said there had been no progress on a broader
free trade agreement between ASEAN and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council,
which includes the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Tengku Zafrul said Malaysia was talking with the
EU for free trade agreement but cautioned that momentum behind a US-led
Indo-Pacific agreement had slowed down.
“I’m not too optimistic if Trump comes in,” he
said of this year’s US presidential election, citing the US abandoning another
Pacific trade deal under former President Donald Trump.