Malaysia PM says 4 nations considering gold, barter to beat future sanctions

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad revealed that Kuala Lumpur and three other countries are planning to trade among themselves in gold and through a barter system. Iran, Malaysia, Turkey and Qatar are mulling over the idea due to fear of future economic sanctions, said Mohamad at the end of four-day Kuala Lumpur summit.

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt imposed air, land and sea blockade on Qatar, accusing them of supporting terrorism. Iran is also facing economic embargoes by the United States for allegedly violating the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. Mohamad warned that the “unilateral decisions” to take punitive measures can be imposed on any one of them.

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Mohamad said that self-reliance is important considering future threats and there is a need to re-visit the idea of trading using the gold dinar and barter trade among the four countries. He also praised Iran and Qatar for surviving the sanctions. The Malaysian prime minister added that they are looking into it “seriously” to find a mechanism to put it into effect. He also called India’s Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 unfortunate, which has led to massive protests across the country.

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Possible trade-sanctions

Mohamad has been raising concerns about possible trade-sanctions on export-reliant countries for quite some time. Speaking at a conference in Kuala Lumpur on October 21, the Prime Minister said that the country is caught in the middle of the US-China trade war. Mahathir Mohamad said that the country should prepare for the worst by working with ASEAN neighbours to “cushion the impact of superpower collision”.

"Economically we are linked to both markets, and physically we are also caught in between for geographical reasons. There are even suggestions that we ourselves would be a target for sanctions," said Mahathir Mohamad. He acknowledged that the trade war between the world’s largest economies will have its effect on the trading system but complained that tariffs and counter-tariffs to free trade are becoming the “new normal”.

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(With inputs from agencies)