Don’t rebadge products just to dodge US tariffs, China businesses told

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy investment, trade and industry minister Liew Chin Tong today told businesses from China not to “rebadge” their products in Malaysia just to dodge US tariffs.

In his keynote speech at the Common Action Forum 2024 here, Liew cited an article by economist Stephen Roach, who said officials in Asian economies believed the tariffs threatened by incoming US president Donald Trump were a bluff.

“Over the past year or so in my current portfolio, I have been advising many businesses from China not to invest in Malaysia if they are merely thinking of rebadging their products via Malaysia to avoid US tariffs.

“As we have witnessed in the solar panel sector, whether under Democratic or Republican administrations, the tariffs will catch up with them,” Liew said.

Last Friday, Reuters reported that the US had announced a new round of tariffs on solar panel imports from four Southeast Asian nations, after US manufacturers complained that unfairly cheap goods were flooding the market.

Liew said Asian economies would have to move past their dependence on the US as the main consumer market for all their exports.

He said the US’s middle class was shrinking after decades of outsourcing manufacturing jobs to Asia, and struggling to consume as incomes shrink.

“Yet Asian economies are massively productive, thanks to the rapid acquisition of technology, including artificial intelligence.

“For us to imagine a future in which Asian economies do not necessarily have to export most of their produce to the US, we desperately need to have more consumers in Asean, the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

“To reach there, Asian economies will need to create sufficient jobs with adequate and decent pay for a middle class to emerge,” he said.