Malaysia - Foreign trade
During the 1970s, petroleum and manufactures displaced rubber and tin as Malaysia's leading exports. Malaysia now exports over a third (37%) of the world's fixed vegetable oil, and a considerable portion (14%) of the world's radio broadcast receivers, but its largest export revenues come from sales of office machines. The top eight exports are:
| % OF COUNTRY TOTAL | |
| Office machines and parts | 21 |
| Transistors and valves | 19 |
| Telecommunications equipment | 13 |
| Crude petroleum | 4.0 |
| Natural and manufactured gas | 3.7 |
| Fixed vegetable oil | 2.7 |
| Electrical breakers | 2.6 |
| Apparel | 2.3 |
In 2000 Malaysia's imports were distributed among the following categories:
| Consumer goods | 4.4% |
| Food | 3.6% |
| Fuels | 4.8% |
| Industrial supplies | 21.3% |
| Machinery | 60.2% |
| Transportation | 4.1% |
| Other | 1.6% |
Exports went primarily to the US (21%), Singapore (18%), and Japan (13%). Imports came primarily from Japan (21%), the US (17%), and Singapore (14%). Principal trading partners in 2000 (in millions of US dollars) were as follows:
| COUNTRY | EXPORTS | IMPORTS | BALANCE |
| United States | 20,160 | 13,637 | 6,523 |
| Singapore | 18,046 | 11,762 | 6,284 |
| Japan | 12,834 | 17,240 | -4,406 |
| China (inc. Hong Kong) | 7,464 | 5,494 | 1,970 |
| Netherlands | 4,110 | 578 | 3,532 |
| Thailand | 3,549 | 3,154 | 395 |
| Korea | 3,280 | 3,663 | -383 |
| United Kingdom | 3,044 | 1,600 | 1,444 |
| Germany | 2,457 | 2,442 | 15 |
| Indonesia | 1,706 | 2,269 | -563 |