Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) urged businesses not to resort to mass layoffs in response to the latest US tariff hike, which it described as based on a “voodoo tariff” formula.

Its deputy director of research, Yin Shao Loong, criticised the methodology behind the US imposition, calling it “an arbitrary formula that does not reflect economic realities or is rooted in any reality of tariff rates.”

He explained that the tariff was...