Washington — Economic decisions made by emerging Asian countries such as Malaysia will shape the entire global economy for decades to come, and the United States considers Malaysia to be its “natural partner” thanks to shared values such as democracy, human rights and free trade, says Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.
“This relationship has become one of America’s most promising in all of Southeast Asia,” Burns said December 15 during a visit to Kuala Lumpur.
“Both our nations seek a world where democracies can flourish, human dignity is advanced, poverty is reduced, trade is expanded, our environment is preserved and new frontiers in science and technology are explored. And both our nations seek a world where violent extremists are marginalized and the spread of weapons of mass destruction are curbed,” he said.
As Malaysia’s largest foreign direct investor, U.S. manufacturers employ 166,000 Malaysians and have invested more than $15 billion in the country. Burns noted that bilateral trade has expanded over the past year, and the economic ties between the two countries “have created wealth from Penang to Palo Alto and helped put the wind in the sails of our diplomacy.”
Malaysia and the United States are among the nine countries working to start the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which Burns described as “America’s single most ambitious multilateral trade undertaking in the world.”
“The TPP will expand trade and tell the world’s investors which countries are on the cutting edge in world markets. It will also promote sustainable, high-value trade, with protections for workers, the environment, intellectual property and the rules of fair competition,” Burns said.
Both the United States and Malaysia want to foster a system of free, open, transparent and fair economic competition. Along with TPP partners Australia, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, “our hope is that the promise of access to the TPP’s markets can serve as a spur to push other nations to raise their standards and join our trading community,” Burns said.
Malaysia’s own domestic economic reform agenda has already attracted American and other investors, and its reforms are in alignment with what the TPP would require.
“The kind of high standards envisaged in the TPP will help ensure that Malaysia meets its goal of becoming a high-income economy by 2020,” he said.
The rise of Malaysia and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region is “a story still being written,” Burns said. Already the area is home to half of the world’s population, more than half of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and nearly half of its trade, and its choices will affect American and global interests more than any other region.
“Instead of seeking a narrow economic advantage at others’ expense, the U.S. hopes to work with Malaysia and all countries in the region to foster a system that allows people everywhere to prosper together … [and] turn a generation of growth into a century of shared prosperity,” Burns said.