Earlier this year in April, Trump announced the “Liberation Day tariffs”, which included a 24% tariff on Malaysian exports as part of a broader global plan targeting roughly 49 more countries. He then paused it for 90 days to allow for negotiations.

A surprise vote barring the Trump administration from moving the FBI’s headquarters to a new location in Washington, D.C., brought the Senate appropriations process to a halt — a setback for lawmakers working to avert a government shutdown at the end of September.

The US is still Malaysia’s third-largest buyer for chip exports. The Southeast Asia nation is also responsible for packaging nearly 10% of the world’s semiconductors, and around 40% of its exports are electrical and electronic products. In 2024, the country sold over 575.45 billion ringgit-worth of semiconductors, equal to about $135 billion.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met his Japanese and Philippine counterparts in a meeting Thursday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ annual ministerial meetings in Malaysia. The U.S., Japan and the Philippines have been building a trilateral bloc to broaden security and economic cooperation.

Marco Rubio meets with Russian foreign minister amid tensions over Ukraine and Trump releases tariff letters to trading partners.

Financial markets are wobbling this week after President Trump extended his 90-day deadline for big trade deals over the weekend, following the imposition of unilateral tariffs on dozens of U.S. trading partners back in April.

President Donald Trump revealed new higher tariff rates for more than a dozen countries after hitting Japan and South Korea first earlier in the day.

Donald Trump’s latest act of trade brinkmanship risks creating a “tariff wall” around the manufacturing hubs of south-east Asia, leading to higher prices and tough choices for US consumers and industry, analysts warn.