Malaysia's newly-elected prime minister called today for the Trans-Pacific Partnership to be "renegotiated," and urged protection for small countries in international trade.
Malaysia, along with 10 other countries, pushed ahead with the TPP in March despite Donald Trump having yanked the United States out of the huge multilateral trade deal.
But Mahathir Mohamad told a gathering in Tokyo he was "not very keen" on the agreement.
"We need TPP renegotiated," he said in a speech to the "Future of Asia" forum. "We have to recognise: Just as there are infant industries, there are infant nations, nations which are just beginning to grow," he said.
"They need to have some privileges, some protection for themselves, because they are not in a position to compete with the great trading nations, the great manufacturing nations of the world."