US President Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim signed a trade agreement on Sunday, boosting US access to critical minerals as China tightens controls on rare earths.

Trump is in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur at the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, ahead of a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday.

Under the new US-Malaysia deal, Kuala Lumpur pledged to “refrain from banning or imposing quotas on exports to the US of critical minerals“, while Washington agreed the formalization of a 19 percent tariff on Malaysian goods. (AFP)