Malaysia: Women and migrant workers will bear the brunt of US tariffs but are being left out of trade talks, scholar warns
"Don’t forget the workers in trade war talk, says scholar"
Universiti Malaya’s Vilashini Somiah, an anthropologist specialising in migration, gender and labour, said the current debate often focuses on geopolitics and corporate interests instead of the factory and construction workers who will feel the impact...
“But the fact of the matter is, you can’t move any of these things… if the cost of labour on invisible bodies, particularly, is not acknowledged.”...
She said the gendered and migrant dimensions of labour often go unmentioned in trade policies, as these perspectives were not seen as “sexy” or powerful compared to hard diplomacy and economic strategy...
US president Donald Trump introduced the tariff measures on April 3, imposing a 10% baseline levy on most trading partners and steeper duties on dozens of countries and blocs, including the EU, UK, Canada, Mexico, and China.
Malaysia initially received a 24% tariff rate, excluding electronics, while regional neighbour Cambodia was slapped with a 49% tariff, the heaviest among all Southeast Asian countries. It was followed by Laos (48%), Vietnam (46%), and Singapore (10%).
Malaysia’s exports in manufacturing and palm oil, sectors heavily reliant on migrant labour, were expected to feel the impact...