KUALA LUMPUR: Second International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said Malaysia will be focusing more on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as uncertainties loom over the fate of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP).

The RCEP is a 16-party trade pact among the 10 Asean member states, along with Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, with the pact seen as an alternative to the TPP, which has left out China and India.

While the US is a huge economy, Ong said US president-elect Donald Trump's protectionist stance on trade will not have an impact on the wider trend of globalisation of trade.

"The worst-case scenario would be the US closing its doors, but they would not stop the global direction of trade.

"Now with the situation of the TPP, the focus will be on the RCEP. We hope the RCEP's conclusion will offset a lot of the negative impact of the [non-implementation of] TPP. We will try to conclude the deal by December, but there has been some delay," he said.

Ong explained that the delays were caused by some member countries not having existing free-trade agreements among themselves, such as Japan and India.

Ong spoke at a press conference yesterday held in conjunction with the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) SME Conference 2016 themed "Beyond Economic Growth: SMEs Meeting Global Challenges".

Another speaker, SME Corp Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim, emphasised the importance of looking beyond the US market, adding that there are opportunities in other parts of the world.

"It's important to look beyond the US. The prime minister's visit to China — we were the first Southeast Asian country to visit China after the US elections — was a very big signal.

"Economic growth is also improving in the emerging and developing European countries, Latin American countries and the Sub-Saharan African countries. These are all potential markets beyond the US," she said.

Although the TPP seems unlikely to be pushed through, FMM president Tan Sri Saw Choo Boon said the preparations done by companies for the trade pact have strengthened the industry.

“The non-implementation of the TPP is not the end of the world. The government and Miti (ministry of international trade and industry) have other options. It would be a slight setback but the good thing is that we have done a lot of preparations and have strengthened our industry,” he said.

Hafsah concurred, saying that the companies are now better prepared for any upcoming regional or bilateral free-trade agreements.