KUALA LUMPUR: Any foreign currencies used by Malaysia for global trade must be closely scrutinised by the government, says Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.
The Investment, Trade and Industry Minister said this comes in the wake of recent threats by US president-elect Donald Trump to impose 100% tariffs on BRICS members if they go ahead with a new currency for global trade, although Malaysia is not a member of the grouping.
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"Malaysia has yet to become a member of BRICS and will continue to monitor the developments which could have an impact on the nation.
"The use of foreign currency for trade and commerce must be studied further by the government.
"Any decision will be based on the best interests of the nation in line with current policies," he told Young Syefura Othman (PH-Bentong) during Minister's Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (Dec 5).
He pointed out that Malaysia was not a BRICs member but recognised as one of its 13 partner countries, among other Asean nations such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.
Although the topic of moving away from dependence on the US dollar as a global currency of trade was discussed during the recent BRICS Summit, he said no official proposal was made on the matter.
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He noted that Malaysia and the United States had good trade relations, with the country being our third largest trading partner after China and Singapore.
Malaysia is the 19th largest trading partner of the United States, Tengku Zafrul added.
He pointed out that Malaysia enjoyed a trade surplus of RM54.5bil with the United States in the first 10 months of this year.
He attributed this to a 29.1% increase in trade with the United States amounting to RM264.3bil for the same period and stressed that Malaysia takes an open approach to trading with any nation.
"We must strengthen trade not only with a few countries but with all trading nations," he said, adding that this was shown by the country's willingness to hold talks with the United States and European Union on trade agreements.
