He said the government will ensure that the negotiations will provide a win-win situation for the EU and Malaysia.
“Recently, we presented (the proposal) to the Cabinet so that we can restart negotiations and find a solution. We don’t know yet whether it can be done.
“There are many requests for us to restart negotiations. Now it’s up to the EU,” he said in an interview with Astro Awani today.
Negotiations on the FTA began in October 2010, and progressed through eight rounds until September 2012, but were postponed because of Malaysia’s position on palm oil, procurement policy, subsidies and the EU’s sustainability clause.
Tengku Zafrul said only two Southeast Asian countries – Vietnam and Singapore – have concluded FTAs with the EU so far.
He also said Malaysia will finalise an FTA with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the end of this year and will start negotiations with South Korea, which are expected to be completed next year.
“We will also be negotiating with two or three European countries that are not included in the EU and will finalise the FTAs with those countries as well,” he said.
He said the government wants to ensure that Malaysia works with all countries in a consistent, open and neutral manner.
“Malaysia has 16 FTAs that are multilateral and bilateral, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP),” he said.
Tengku Zafrul also noted that the combined economic size of the BRICS countries is almost 30% of the world’s economy.
“We want to join the bloc so that we can use this platform as a forum to work with member countries.
“We also want to be a voice to the world on the challenges faced by the Global South in terms of climate change, energy, geopolitics and economics,” he said.
Malaysia has applied to join BRICS, a trading bloc for emerging economies established in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, followed by South Africa’s participation in 2010.
In January, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the UAE also joined as new members.