EFTA States and Malaysia meet for their 13th round of negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement

From left: Krisztina Bende, Director, EFTA Secretariat - Ove Christian Owe, Chief Negotiator, Norway - Sumathi Balakrishnan, Senior Director at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysia - Markus Schlagenhof, Ambassador, Switzerland - Ólöf Hrefna Kristjánsdóttir, Minister Counsellor, Iceland - Patrick Ritter, Minister Counsellor, Liechtenstein

Markus Schlagenhof, Ambassador and Delegate of the Swiss Federal Council for Trade Agreements, acted as EFTA spokesperson, whereas Sumathi Balakrishnan, Director at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry headed the Malaysian delegation.

EFTA and Malaysia held in-depth discussions in the following areas: trade in goods and services, competition, rules of origin, investment, government procurement, trade and sustainable development, intellectual property rights and cooperation and capacity building.

Progress was made on most areas under negotiations with some chapters brought close to a conclusion. On trade and sustainable development, the discussions focused on issues relating to right to regulate and domestic levels of protection, on international obligations in the area of worker’s protection and on respective policies regarding responsible business conduct. Delegates also expressed their views on developments in Malaysia, in particular on Malaysia’s new Investment Policy, which includes the mainstreaming of responsible investments and the development of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors.

At their closing plenary session today, delegations confirmed their willingness to speed up the negotiations and hold their 14th round early in 2023.

EFTA’s full report of the round is available here. 

Economic relations between the EFTA States and Malaysia

Total trade between the parties has been growing steadily over the last ten years. In 2021, total trade between the EFTA States and Malaysia reached USD 1.9 billion, of which USD 1 billion represented imports from Malaysia and USD 900 million represented exports from the EFTA States.

The main imports to the EFTA States were electrical machinery (40%), while the majority of exports to Malaysia were pharmaceutical products (22%). Total trade between the parties continues to increase this year.

Read more about merchandise trade between EFTA and Malaysia here.