KUALA LUMPUR – Former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has warned that the high tariff policy pursued by United State of America, President, Donald Trump could lead to prolonged inflation and make American products less competitive in the global market.
Commenting on the renewed global focus on tariffs, Dr Mahathir said that although he is not an economist, he understands that high taxes on imports into the United States will ultimately burden American consumers and importers.
“Who will pay? Not the exporters. American importers and consumers will end up paying.
“Eventually, they may choose not to buy or buy less. That will hurt exporters,” he said in a statement today.
He noted that while other countries continue trading with each other without imposing high tariffs, global trade will still shrink overall.
Dr Mahathir also questioned Trump’s expectation that US industries would return to domestic production quickly.
“Bloomberg reported that Apple would need eight years to move out of China. The company shifted production to India, but America will still need to import. That’s not what Trump wants, he wants all industries to be based in the US But that would take another eight years. So he’ll need to ‘pause’ for eight years,” Dr Mahathir remarked with irony.
He also raised doubts over Trump’s move to ‘pause’ the import of iPhones from China, pointing out that almost all iPhones for the American market are manufactured there.
“China may lose access to the U.S. market, but American companies will also suffer, maybe even more. In Malaysia, we’ll still pay the old prices,” he said.
Dr Mahathir explained that relocating manufacturing operations to the US is not only time consuming but would result in much higher production costs, making products like the iPhone more expensive and less competitive globally.
“And it’s not just iPhones. Many American products are made in China and in Malaysia, and other developing countries. So I wonder, how many times will Trump have to ‘pause’?”
Dr Mahathir concluded by suggesting that Trump study Malaysia’s experience in handling tariff-related issues.
“Malaysia has plenty of experience with tariffs. Perhaps Trump should learn from us,” he said. -MalayaDailyToday
