Minister of international trade and industry Darell Leiking said Malaysia is hoping that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s remarks on the Kashmir conflict won’t influence the RCEP deal.
The country is working to resolve the tiff that began late last month. Malaysian leader told the UN General Assembly that India had “invaded and occupied” Kashmir. The Kashmir strife is a territorial clash between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region.
On 5 August 2019, the Indian government repealed the special status granted to its Jammu and Kashmir state. Also, India dismissed criticisms from foreign countries, saying that the issue is an internal affair.
Mahathir’s comments didn’t sit well with Indian traders. They called for a boycott of Malaysian palm oil, which Mahathir described as a “trade war”.
There were concerns that the spat between the two countries could affect the negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
RCEP Free Trade Agreement
On Thursday, Leiking told reporters talks on RCEP deal were ongoing. RCEP members include 10 members of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) and six Asia-Pacific countries – China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand,
Leiking said “anything can happen” before the RECEP summit on November 4 in Bangkok. But the minister assured all 16 countries were pushing toward finalizing the free trade agreement.
“We hope that RCEP negotiations can be concluded by year-end so that Malaysian companies could reap the opportunities from this mega FTA in opening up more market access for our products and services,” he said.
The RCEP member states expected to create an integrated market of 3.4 billion people with a total GDP of US$49.5 trillion, approximately 39 percent of the world’s GDP.
Leiking said he recently met his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal to discuss the growing concerns in New Delhi on bilateral ties.
“Hope to meet him more and get more details into the issue and what they want to do,” Leiking said. “We have yet to hear (formally) from the government. But we will engage with their government more so.”
Also read: India Trade Body to Boycott Palm Oil From Malaysia