MP SPEAKS 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 TPPA is a free trade agreement currently being negotiated by Malaysia and 10 other countries across the Asia-Pacific region.

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

In the next four weeks, trade negotiators from twelve countries will arrive in Kuala Lumpur for the 18th round of negotiations on the TPPA. This is not the first time that they would be huddling behind closed doors to hammer out details.

NONE 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 Abdul Razak ( right ) and his self-styled claims of transformation - transparency and accountability.

The TPP process in Malaysia, in contrast, is tightly controlled by the International Trade and Industry Ministry (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 the 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”.

'Mukhriz clearly does not understand'

  

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

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 liberalisation.

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 centres 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 would be able to dictate policies to governments.

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

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

On the issue of affordable medicine for example, the TPP may increase the 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 on 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 MPs in the upcoming June 2013 parliamentary session and establish a bipartisan parliamentary select committee (PSC) on the TPPA; and
  • 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 MP for Klang.