Exporters urged to take advantage of US-China trade war

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian exporters, especially palm oil producers, have been urged to take advantage of the current US-China trade war which may see the later facing difficulty in replacing its soybean supplies.
In making the call, Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok Suh Sim said China's move to place an additional 25% retaliatory tariff on US soybean oil presents Malaysian exporters an opportunity to offer their products to the Chinese market.
"Malaysia must work hard to meet the possible increase in demand for agri-commodity products following the trade war between China and the United States since palm oil is a big revenue earner for Malaysia.
"Malaysia hopes that China will be importing more Malaysian palm oil and palm-based products and also encourage more China corporations to invest in other primary industries in Malaysia," she said at the launch of the 8th Malaysia-China Entrepreneur Conference (MCEC) 2018, here today.
Malaysia and China have a strong trade relation in agri-commodities, with trade recorded at RM23 billion in 2017.
Last year, Malaysia's exports of agri-commodities and agri-commodity-based products to China rose 27% to RM19.1 billion, compared with RM15 billion in 2016.
The exports mainly comprised palm products valued at RM9.42 billion, followed by rubber and rubber products at RM8.09 billion.
China is Malaysia's third-biggest buyer of palm oil and palm oil-related products in 2017, importing 1.92 million tonnes of palm oil.
Kok said Malaysia aims to increase its trade and relations with China going forward, and is eyeing higher foreign direct investment from Chinese corporations with the palm oil downstream industry as a potential area of interest. — Bernama