Explain the secrecy behind trade talk

The government must explain the secrecy and covet approach in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Negotiations, says Charles Santiago.

COMMENT

By Charles Santiago

The negotiations have always been covert and secretive back door deals involving trade negotiators who have the interests of big businesses at heart. The people do not matter. This includes ordinary Malaysians as well.

I am talking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is a free trade agreement currently being negotiated by Malaysia and 10 other countries across the Asia-Pacific region.

These countries include: United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

In the next four weeks trade negotiators from 12 countries will arrive in Kuala Lumpur for the 18^th round of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. This is not the first time they would huddling behind closed doors to hammer out details.

The negotiations were initiated in 2008. But lawmakers have no idea as to what has transpired during these discussions. They have not been informed, despite repeated calls to do so from Parliament members, trade unions and business groups.

These hush-hush negotiations pose a huge challenge for Malaysia and its citizens, including the business community. It does not augur well for the administration of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his self-styled claims of transformation – transparency and accountability.

The TPP process in Malaysia, in contrast, is tightly controlled by the Ministry of International Trade and Industries (MITI).

In April 2012, I stood up in parliament to ask the government about the risk of losing sovereignty under the TPP’s “investor-state trade dispute” mechanism. The then Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industries, Mukhriz Mahathir, casually reassured parliament that Malaysia’s interest is protected because “the government always had officers from the Attorney-General’s Chambers present during talks with foreign delegates.”

Clearly he did not understand the severity of implications arising from these trade disputes.

Undermining national sovereignty

The TPPA is more than a commercial or trade deal although they are often guised as an instrument to improve trade on the basis of economic liberalization.

Once the TPPA rules and regulations are adopted by negotiating countries, it must be ratified by national governments or parliaments. Then local laws must be changed to accommodate the new rules agreed upon.

This will allow companies to sue national governments at international arbitration centers based in Washington and Geneva, thus undermining national sovereignty and public policy making responsibilities of nations.

In short, tribunal verdicts cannot be reviewed in domestic courts and companies can dictate policies to governments.

The financial penalty or trade sanctions against elected governments meted out by these dispute arbitration centers are binding and severe. Trade sanctions can also be imposed against the countries’ exports.

The trade agreement is comprehensive in that it would involve establishing new rules and regulations from food safety, government procurement, financial markets, intellectual property rights to medicine prices and Internet freedom.

On the issue of affordable medicine for example, the TPP may increase cost of medicine as it contains aggressive intellectual property provisions which limit access to generic medicines.

In the case of Malaysia, it’s still not too late for Najib and his government to make good their promises of transparency and accountability.

Next month’s negotiations will provide an opportunity for the Malaysian government to include stakeholders in the discussions. Najib must understand that the interest of 28 million Malaysians is at risk.

As such, I call upon the government to:

• Make available the cost-benefit analysis on the TPPA

• Organise a briefing for all members of parliament in the upcoming June 2013 parliamentary session and establish a bi-partisan Parliamentary Select Committee on TPPA.

• To provide meaningful platforms for civil society and other stakeholders to participate in the upcoming round of negotiations in Malaysia, such as direct dialogue with the TPP negotiators.

Anything short of this would only mean that Najib’s “People First” rhetoric is merely hollow.

Charles Santiago is DAP’s MP for Klang.