International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed has said he is the biggest champion of transparency in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations, insisting that his government is improving transparency by the day.

“I am the biggest champion of transparency. I understand transparency is a concern for many countries, including here in Malaysia, but some parts of the negotiation cannot be revealed,” he said during a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

But Mustapa insisted that his ministry is improving transparency.

“We are getting more transparent. We had four engagements this year alone, and I chaired all of them,” he said.

Mustapa also said the government is not going to sign the TPPA deal, which was scheduled to be sealed by end 2013, anytime soon as there are still major concerns that needed to be ironed out.

"We have not decided when the next leg of negotiation will take place," he added.

Meanwhile, DAP's Klang MP Charles Santiago, who is a strong critic of the TPPA negotiations, said while Mustapa is more transparent than other ministers, he stressed that transparency has to start before a decision is made and not after.

"In the engagement the minister had with us, the things he shared with us were public knowledge. Its not anything new. Engagement has got to be more substantive," he told Malaysiakini.

"What kind of transparency is this?" Santiago asked.