The Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (Insap) said despite raising concerns over falling trade surpluses for more than a year, the government had yet to outline concrete plans and strategies to reverse the trend.

In a statement, Insap chairman Pamela Yong said it was a known fact that ever since Donald Trump won the presidency in November, Asean countries would “need to brace themselves for some pretty rough tariff seas ahead”.

Trump yesterday said the 25% tariffs to be imposed on imports from Canada and Mexico would take effect today. He also ordered additional tariffs against Chinese goods, increasing previously imposed 10% levies to 20%.

Already, Yong said, the tariffs were hitting the global markets real hard.

“And with such poor trade numbers to show, I fear Malaysia is hardly equipped for the greater global challenges ahead if we don’t act swiftly,” she said, referring to Malaysia’s drop in trade balance in January.

Yong said the country recorded a trade balance of RM3.6 billion in January, a 64.3% fall from the RM10.2 billion recorded in the same period last year.

“All of our trading partners have already planned ahead for the so-called Trump tariffs but where is Malaysia’s direction?”

Yong said there was a need to work in cohesion with proper monetary policies as well as having strong fundamentals in the financial markets in order to have enough stabilisers to weather the times ahead.