NOVEMBER 21 — The Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) between Malaysia and the United States has received strong criticism from detractors who insist the arrangement is lopsided, risky, or even neo-colonial. 

True, ART deserves scrutiny by one or more of the Parliamentary Select Committees at the end of month. 

But it does not deserve instant condemnation that verge on total histrionics. Why ? The proverbial taste of the pudding is in the eating. Neither the Malaysian or Asian Pacific economy has fallen through the floor. 

To the degree, Japanese yen and economy are reeling that is due to a spat with China. Even the Taiwanese economy is not affected since the faus pax did not emerge in Taipei. But through the remark of Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae which has got China all livid. Amazingly ART can insulate itself from political brickbat between China and Japan, two of the largest economies in the region with which Asean is not impervious too.

Indeed, if ART were truly disastrous, the ringgit would not be rising. It has strengthened 8 per cent this year and has had some analysts wondering if it is strengthening too fast instead.

Meanwhile, the Kuala Lumpur stock market would not be trending upward if ART was a down right bad deal. Nor would global and local analysts be improving their forecasts of Malaysia’s economic prospects viz the region. Markets are realists, not sloganeers.

Here are ten reasons why ART is not devastating — and why it must be understood within the broader diplomatic context of Trump’s week across Asia.

First, ART contains no finality that is atypical of colonial agreements since there are many clauses that allow further elaborations and appeals, and this is its greatest strength. 

Tariffs are capped at 19 per cent. But they can be further negotiated. Just that it cannot be lower than the baseline 10 percent received by Singapore. Just as Singapore bit the bullet Malaysia did too. Other member states of Asean are mulling on doing the same agreement with the US based on what Malaysia and Cambodia have done with Trump. There are no reasons why Malaysia cannot improve its ART too since it was one of the pioneers to get on board with Trump.

As for Malaysia, pharmaceuticals, palm oil, cocoa and rubber did receive exemptions. While semiconductor-related goods while tax free, will enjoy conditional exemptions that can expand with reciprocal behaviour from Malaysia. 

ART evolves through review panels, technical committees, and continuous consultations.

This is also why the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) — the country’s backbone of exports — was among the first to embrace ART. 

They recognised what many critics ignored: predictability matters more than perfection. For manufacturers planning multi-year production cycles, an anchored tariff framework reduces uncertainty.

Second, Miti, including Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz and Liew Chin Tong, did not fully explain this flexibility. ART is not a rigid document cast in stone. It is a living instrument capable of reasonable and diplomatic adjustment. It is a constructive  compact rather than a classical contract. 

Third, ART reflects Trump’s diplomatic style: a proliferation of “special relationships,” forged not for sentiment but for reciprocal advantage that must evolve with time; a feature not available to his administration had US gone head long into World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). 

Trump, a bilateralist through and through. wants friendships that work, not iron clad treaties that free ride on American economic and security guarantees such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But he also understands that goodwill must be mutual. Not surprisingly Trump is against the European Union (EU) betraying remarks that “EU is out to screw the US.” 

As and when US can work with EU, the Trans Atlantic Dynamics have been manageable. Vice President JD Vance has not tore into Europe time and again as he once did at the Munich Security Conference.

Fourth, Trump’s history reveals him as a “perfect imperfect” negotiator. On India, Trump is still in two minds but he understands its importance too.

For example, he imposed harsh tariffs on Switzerland and Brazil; before reversing them once they reached new understandings with Washington. 

Time and again, Trump has shown that nothing is permanent — except the pursuit of advantage.

Fifth, when the Philippines was collapsing under inflation and the Peso weakened by corruption scandals, Trump quietly extended nearly US$1 billion (RM4.1 billion) worth of tariff exemptions. 

This had nothing to do with ART. It was crisis prevention rooted in strategic logic. That’s classic Trump. Curiously, he has a rampaging and empathetic side which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia seems to understand.

Sixth, Trump bailed out Argentina despite protests from MAGA supporters who argued that impoverished American communities in West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan needed help first. 

Trump acted because he views financial implosions abroad as political liabilities at home.

Seventh, critics misunderstand treaties. International agreements are not shackles; they are retractable umbrellas. Asean’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), which is also known as the Bali Declaration of 1976, such an agreement did not prevent Cambodia and Thailand from clashing repeatedly over the last fifteen years. 

But it provided a diplomatic channel to manage escalation. When tariff threats loomed from Trump, both countries escalated their disputes to the General Border Management Committee and cooled down.

ART belongs to this same category: imperfect but essential, flexible rather than fixed.

Eighth, calling ART “colonial” misses Trump’s behaviour in Asia. Unlike the confrontational tone he sometimes adopted in the West, Trump moved at a gentler tempo throughout Asean and North-east Asia. He appeared intent on leaving a constructive legacy through trade deals, tariff adjustments and calibrated diplomacy.

Ninth, Anwar recognised this opening. As Group Chair of Asean and Related Summits, Anwar hosted Trump when the US President could easily have walked away — as he did at G7 and G20 meetings. Instead, Trump stayed. 

His delegation did not pressure Malaysia to be anti-China or anti-Russia. For that matter to be totally pro America. Truno could have done it Russia sent only a small, low-profile team to the East Asia Summit, yet the U.S. did not exploit this imbalance. Neither did Trump, conscious of his truce with President Xi Jin Ping at Apec. damage Asean’s credibility since this was the Comprehensive Strategic Partner of the US.

In more ways than one, Anwar is also extending this form of flexible commercial diplomacy into Africa, especially East Africa, which aligns with the Asean Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. The latter is helping countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya to re-enter multilateral trade frameworks with Asean that Washington once tore down. The US does not oppose what Anwar does with China nor with Africa this. 

In fact, it trusts Anwar to “restitch” what had been unravelled.

This trust also explains why Anwar could raise the sensitive subject of Gaza with Trump. 

Having observed how Trump, with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, once contemplated placing Ahmad Shara — a former deputy commander of Al-Qaeda in Iraq — as interim leader of Iraq, Anwar understood Trump’s logic of hard-edged deal-making. 

He highlighted the missing specifics in the Gaza plan. Trump listened, did not dismiss him, and the imperfect peace framework is now inching forward despite Israeli violations — violations that occur under Trump’s scrutiny.

Tenth, contrary to doomsayers, there has been no meltdown — anywhere. Trump did not warn Malaysia against CAFTA 3.0. 

He did not oppose Comprehensive Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) backed by China, Japan and South Korea, despite having killed the original TPP. 

Trump did not criticise Regional Cooperation on Economic Partnership (RCEP). There was no chaos or pathos at the US–Asean Summit.

In fact, global markets — from Wall Street to Nikkei to the Hang Seng — improved after Trump’s visits to Malaysia, Tokyo, and Seoul. Analysts uniformly noted that the world seemed to be turning a corner from the anticipated devastation of the so-called “Liberation Day taxes.” 

Even the US economy added 190,000 jobs to its payroll in October 2025, with layoffs slowing as the country began adapting to the sweeping disruptions brought by artificial intelligence.

The world is stabilising, not collapsing. However, ART must be understood within this kaleidoscope of Trump’s one week in Asia — a week marked by surprising calm, restrained rhetoric, and constructive engagement.

The fiercest opponents of ART are fighting yesterday’s wars. Merdeka never meant rejecting all agreements. 

It meant preventing domination while building national capacity. Tunku Abdul Rahman achieved this in 1957. Anwar is doing it now in a multipolar, AI-driven global economy.

ART is not a surrender nor a capitulation since the multiple procurements predate ART.

It is an adjustable, evolving conversation — one that Malaysia is shaping with confidence.

And the rising ringgit, the buoyant KLSE, and the improving regional outlook all point in the same direction: Malaysia is navigating this space far better than its critics admit.

* Phar Kim Beng is Professor of Asean Studies and Director, Institute of International and Asean Studies (IINTAS) International Islamic University Malaysia

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.