Southeast Asia must 'stand firm' against US tariffs: Malaysia PM

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called on Monday for Southeast Asian countries to "stand firm together" after they were among the hardest hit by US tariffs.

Sweeping levies imposed last week by President Donald Trump against friends and foes alike rattled stock markets and alarmed governments around the world.

"We must stand firm together as ASEAN - with a population of 640 million and an economic strength that is among the top in the world," Anwar said at a prime minister's department staff meeting.

Southeast Asian economic ministers will hold a meeting Thursday to discuss the tariffs.

Anwar said his government's task was "to contact our friends in ASEAN so that each country can state its position, but at the same time, we move together as a group".

Malaysia is this year's rotating chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Manufacturing powerhouse Vietnam was hit with a 46 percent tariff on its exports to the United States, while neighbouring Cambodia -- a major producer of low-cost clothing for big Western brands -- was slapped with a 49 percent duty.

Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third-largest economy, was hit with lower tariff of 24 percent.

Like the other ASEAN members, Kuala Lumpur has said it will not introduce retaliatory actions against the United States, despite refuting Washington's claims that it imposes a 47 percent tariff on US goods.

"I think two wrongs don't make a right," Malaysia's Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said at a press conference.

"It's important that we remain calm, because anything that will result in (a) trade war is not for the benefit of the global economy."