Secretive trade agreement: Pakatan Rakyat unconvinced after meeting ministry
Malaysia Chronicle | Wednesday, 19 June 2013
SECRETIVE trade agreement: Pakatan Rakyat unconvinced after meeting ministry
Pakatan Rakyat leaders emerged from their recent dialogue session with the International Trade and Industry ministry on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement by hailing the latter’s willingness to engage the public, but lamented the continued veil of secrecy over the government’s involvement in the controversial plan.
"Whilst we understand that some level of secrecy is required in all detailed trade negotiations, we are alarmed by overall lack of engagement with the general public on the fundamental principles of sovereignty and socio-economic impact of the TPPA," said four PR leaders who last week met with MITI officials led by its chief secretary Rebecca Sta Maria.
The four - PKR’s Nurul Izzah Anwar and Wong Chen, DAP’s Charles Santiago and PAS’s Dzulkefly Ahmad - concluded that it was critical that a bipartisan Parliamentary Select Committee on TPPA be set up immediately, saying greater transparency and public engagement were needed since the agreement would have far reaching impact on ordinary Malaysians.
They warned that absence of such a committee would come at the cost Malaysia’s sovereignty and its people’s socio-economic rights.
"The TPPA’s overarching legal framework could render domestic laws subservient and put multinational corporations on stronger if not equal footing as governments," they added.
Also known as the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, TPPA is aimed at liberalising Asia-Pacific economies. But the US-led initiative - which aims to link its economy to fast-growing markets in the region such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Peru, Mexico, Chile, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei - has been at the centre of protests by civil societies in the countries involved.
MITI’s meeting with PR followed the walkout by Malay business federation Malay Economic Action Council, after MITI refused to provide more information on its talks on the TPPA.
Among others, PR’s discussion centred on the cost-benefit analysis prepared by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - a copy of which MITI said would be made available to PR - as well as the impact of TPPA on medical costs locally as a direct result of Malaysia’s forced adherence to intellectual property laws on pharmaceuticals.
The meeting also saw MITI giving a "verbal assurance" of Malaysia’s sovereign rights to implement economic and capital control policies despite signing the TPPA.
But the PR leaders, citing leaked negotiation text in Australia on capital controls, said it made them "remain highly vigilant of the possibility of losing such rights".
— Harakah Daily
