No signing of TPPA in October

MITI secretary general Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria said there were still many areas which had not been agreed on.

KUALA LUMPUR:   The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which involves 12 countries, will not be signed in October as was initially expected.

Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) secretary-general, Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria said there were still many areas which had not been agreed on.

She said the TPP negotiations were talks among equals and even if one party did not agree, there was no conclusion to the agreement.

“The most important thing is that we will not compromise Malaysia’s sovereignty and that we will stick to our policy.

“We use negotiating skills to exclude areas that impact on sovereignty,” she said.

Sta Mari was speaking at a forum on the TPP organized by the Young Entrepreneur Organisation of Malaysia yesterday.

She said Malaysia had joined the negotiations in October 2010 because it wanted to be understand the process of the negotiations and be able to influence the outcome.

On the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), she said the issues related to their development were included in the TPP talks.

The TPPA is an agreement that the US, as a leading negotiator is hoping to ink to consolidate its role in developing a broader platform for trade liberalization in the Asia Pacific region.

Biggest mistake

The 18th round of TPPA negotiations with America, is currently underway in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Malaysia alongwith 11 other countries are in negotiations with the US.

The TPPA, which has been in negotiations  since 2008, if inked would bind participants to rules on everything from food safety to medicine and internet behavior.

Various groups –from political parties, NGOs  to individual citizens- including former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad have opposed the trade pact calling it the “biggest mistake”.

Mahathir had reportedly described it as a “political tool by the US to contain China’s expansion”.

But the Malaysian government have consistently said it was committed to the trade pact.