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THE US-China trade war drummed up by Washington last month threatened to escalate to a full-scale confrontation when Beijing fired back last week with punitive taxes on a wide range of US goods entering China.

PETALING JAYA: The export duty suspension for Malaysian crude palm oil (CPO) has been extended to end-April 2018, according to the Plantation Industries & Commodities Ministry.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures fell on profit-taking on Wednesday after three sessions of gains while a stronger ringgit and overnight losses in U.S. soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade also weighed.

If the USTR follows through on Trump’s request to add an additional $100bn worth of Chinese imports to the proposed US tariff list, the Chinese will be reluctant to capitulate and seem likely to respond by expanding their own tariff list. In this case, our estimate for the potential damage to China’s economy would rise from 0.1% of GDP to closer to 0.5%. These higher stakes increase the urgency of reaching an agreement with the US but also risk a more damaging outcome if talks break down.

Against the backdrop of a strong economy and with gerrymandering stacking the odds firmly in his favour, Prime Minister Najib Razak is highly likely to win an election which will now take place by May. While this should provide certainty for investors, it means the institutional problems hampering Malaysia’s economy are unlikely to be solved.

Malaysian palm oil futures hit a fresh one-month top on Thursday, charting a fourth session of gains in five, as expectations of falling end-March stockpiles boosted the market

Some 25 years ago, Tugimin, 57, made one of the most important decisions of his life.

Malaysia’s exports unexpectedly declined by 2% year-on-year (y-o-y) in February, significantly below market expectations of an 8% growth, mainly due to a shorter working month and the high-base effect from February 2017.

Palm oil may edge up to 2,498 ringgit per tonne, to complete a wave C

The Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry has formed a team to find ways to increase exports of palm oil and palm oil products to China, following the country’s decision to impose 25% levy of soya oil imported from the United States.

Domestic palm oil prices are expected to rise by 18-20 per cent following a series of duty hikes on edible oils and a sharper increase in import duty for refined palm oil, a report said.

The losers in the “tit-for-tat” US-China trade war will be the Asian export economies, according to AmInvestment Research.