Asean to reach out to US on tariffs

THE Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) would "reach out" to the United States to discuss the tariffs it imposed on its trade partners, Malaysian Ambassador to Manila Malik Melvin Castelino said Sunday.

The issue of tariffs would likely be discussed during the Asean-US dialogue in May in Kuala Lumpur as Malaysia chairs this year's Asean summit.

"There will definitely be a reach-out to the US. I hope to have a positive outcome of it. We speak together as a regional body with the US," Castelino said in an interview with a small group of reporters.

US President Donald Trump last week announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries except China, whose tariffs he raised to 125 percent.

Asean countries, including the Philippines, faced a 10 percent tariff. The regional block, with a combined $3.8 trillion gross domestic product, is an important trading partner of the US.

"So, that gives us more time to come together both regionally and bilaterally to come up with some positions in terms of how to approach this new trade regime which is something new to a lot of us," Castelino said.

Trump said that countries that had not retaliated against US tariffs would receive a reprieve —and only face a blanket US tariff of 10 percent — until July.

"Obviously, these are important issues, which I'm sure will be discussed at the summit level, which is going to happen in May [in Kuala Lumpur], among the Asean countries," Castelino said.

"Eventually, of course, this will be discussed with the US, when we do have the Asean-US dialogue. It is part and parcel of the Asean mechanism," he said. "So, I believe under Malaysian chairmanship, this is one of the processes that we will follow."

"The US is one of the [Asean's] dialogue partners and we look to create a closer relationship [with the US], especially now with the new administration," the envoy said.

The ambassador said Asean is "very dynamic" in having a lot of dialogue partners.

"I think the international community sees Asean as a very strong, important regional association. Because the growth center is in Asean, the growth center is in Asia," Castelino said.