UK eyes stronger trade and ties with Malaysia as it ushers in new PM

SHAH ALAM – The United Kingdom is poised to deepen its ties and trade with Malaysia as the country ends its eight-week-long premiership succession game, with it set to usher in Liz Truss as the country’s new prime minister today.

British High Commissioner to Malaysia Charles Hay guaranteed that the Malaysia-UK relationship would continue to be “very strong and very deep” citing the latter’s consistent policies towards Malaysia and others in the Asia-Pacific region as well.

“Our trading relationship has always been very good,” Hay remarked in an interview with Sinar Daily.

“We do about £5billion worth of trade each year and I would say above all, our educational relationship is extremely strong, with many Malaysians furthering their studies in UK universities,” he added.

As such, Hay believed that Malaysia’s membership in Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) would be vital for the two countries’ trade ties given how both have yet to have any free trade agreement.

“We’re the only two countries within that grouping that don’t have an existing free trade agreement, so it will be beneficial to the trade between our two countries if we both join.

“CPTPP will be a very important part of that overall network of trading arrangement,” he said.

To the uninitiated, CPTPP is a free trade agreement that evolved from the foiled Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Its signatories are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Having left the European Union (EU) – on January 31, 2020 – the UK, stressed Hay, was now free to partake and negotiate free trade agreements with any country on its own accord.

“Before that, all trading arrangements have been obviously designed to benefit all 27 members of the EU but now we can design and negotiate free trading arrangements that benefit the UK.

“We don’t have to think about other members,” Hay pointed out.

The UK’s Conservative Party was pressed to elect a new numero uno following the resignation of Boris Johnson in July, after he was beset by controversies, scandal and immense pressure that demanded him to step down.

Truss beat rival Rishi Sunak in a leadership election yesterday, in which only the 180,000 dues-paying member of the ruling party were allowed to vote.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is scheduled to formally name Truss as PM today.