The Edge Malaysia | 25 October 2025
EU hopes to reach free trade deals with Malaysia, other Asean nations soon, says trade chief
By Ram Anand, Anisah Shukry & Kok Leong Chan / Bloomberg
Trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the European Union hopes to reach free trade agreements with Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand before the 50th anniversary of the bloc’s relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2027.
The EU only comprises 10% of Asean trade, even though it’s the second-largest foreign investor in the region, he said in Kuala Lumpur after talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is hosting Asean meetings of economic ministers.
“I believe that clearly the next year would be very, very decisive, so we will do our utmost to complete ratification process for the agreement,” Sefcovic said. “We hope that next year we will be pushing to the finishing line, these three outstanding countries of the region.”
The EU has ramped up negotiations with various Asian countries including the Philippines and Thailand in a bid to diversify away from the US amid President Donald Trump’s tariff war. It has intensified talks with India and, elsewhere, concluded negotiations with the South American bloc Mercosur.
On Tuesday, Sefcovic signed a trade deal with Indonesia in Bali to eliminate tariffs on most goods traded between the EU and Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. The agreement is expected to be fully implemented by January 2027.
The EU and Malaysia resumed negotiations on a free trade agreement this year. Kuala Lumpur paused its negotiations with the bloc in 2012 over what officials said was unfair treatment of its palm oil and other products in the negotiations.
“So we’ve been telling to the prime minister how hard we are working on our free trade agreement and then we hope the next year we could conclude it,” Sefcovic said of his talks with Anwar. “And his question was, why next year we still have quite time, quite some time until the end of the year.”
Sefcovic will also meet with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this week in Kuala Lumpur to try and restart stalled talks to lower tariffs on steel and aluminium exports.
Underlining the extent of diplomatic activity aimed at improving trade ties, Hong Kong, China, Sri Lanka, Chile and Bangladesh have expressed interest in joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), according to a joint statement from Asean economic ministers Tuesday.
The 15-member RCEP is the world’s largest regional free-trade agreement, including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 Asean member states.
