COMMENT | The recently signed Malaysia-US Reciprocal Trade Agreement is being celebrated by some as a diplomatic triumph.

In reality, it represents a stunning retreat from our principles of non-alignment and economic self-interest, surrendering our national policy autonomy in exchange for meagre concessions.

Unelected Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz dares to claim this to be the "best deal for Malaysia."

The numbers expose this as fiction. The agreement secures zero tariffs, at most, for 12 percent of our exports - valued at approximately US$5 billion (about RM21 billion). More credible independent analyses suggest that the actual figure could be as low as US$1 billion, a paltry 2.4 percent of our total exports, with the vast majority of our products facing a 19 percent tariff.

The arithmetic alone renders the claim of a "good deal" untenable. For context, our neighbour Singapore faces only a 10 percent tariff.

The actual cost of this agreement is not...