The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has recommended in its cost-benefit analysis that Malaysia should not sign the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

NONE Making this claim, PKR’s Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen ( left ), who heads the party’s Trade and Investment Bureau, said he has held several meetings with European representatives who informed him about the UNDP report.

In a separate statement later, Wong clarified that he had met US embassy officials and EU representatives, who are familiar with the TPPA but are not trade negotiators as earlier reported.

He added that it was the US officials who quoted their sources about the UNDP report’s recommendation, whilst the EU representatives offered no opinion on the report.

He said the International Trade and Industry Ministry has, however, refused to disclose the UNDP’s cost-benefit analysis to opposition members of parliament in spite of requests.

He said that, at a meeting with the ministry, the opposition MPs were told that they would be provided with the UNDP report without the negotiation texts.

"However, in Parliament, the minister Mustapa Mohamed said that the UNDP cost benefit analysis would not be disclosed," Wong said.

"We want to know if the government has hired another party to do a cost-benefit analysis on the TPPA. If you tell me that signing the TPPA will make Malaysia RM50 billion, then we should go ahead.”

He said that local businesses will be affected by the TPPA, which he branded as an agreement that will mirror that US economic model and will subject the local industries to an economic shift.