Malaysia may need to make changes to its labour laws if it is to sign onto the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), said the International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed.

He added that Attorney-General Apandi Ali ( photo ) is currently conducting a study on the rules, regulations, and laws that would need to be changed as a result of TPPA’s ratification.

“Once the (TPPA) document is finalised, we will get to know how many rules and regulations need to be changed, and how many laws require amendments,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today, while stressing that there would be no constitutional changes.

Mustapa explained that TPPA requires its signatories to ‘adopt and maintain’ labour laws that are in accordance to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) standards.

“In doing so, there might be changes; for example, with unions and the right to strike,” he said.

On the other hand, he said there would be no changes to the Malaysia’s drug patent policy, which would continue to offer a 20-year patent protection on new drugs.

As for biological products that may have medicinal value, Mustapa said Malaysia has successfully negotiated for a five-year data exclusivity period, despite some countries pushing for a 12-year period.

The provision means that once a drug company submits clinical trial data to regulators in order to seek approval to bring a new medicine based on biologics to market, a competitor cannot use the same data for five years to seek such approval.

Malaysia currently has no such legislation governing the data exclusivity of biologics, which include proteins, antibodies, vaccines, and a wide range of other products of therapeutic value.

To a question whether he can guarantee that there would be no increase in the price of medications, Mustapa pointed out that the prices are influenced by other factors as well, such as monopolies and profit margins.

“But as far as (intellectual) property rights are concerned, or data exclusivity and patents, in our view it would not have an influence on the price of drugs,” he said.

Protects state-owned enterprises

As for Malaysia’s GLCs and pro-bumiputera affirmative action policies, Mustapa said Malaysia has gotten a "good deal" especially in the area of government procurement.

He said there would be a special section in the TPPA that protects Malaysia’s state-owned enterprises.

In addition, foreign companies would be only able to bid for government projects above a certain value, while local companies (i.e. bumiputera companies) would have exclusive access to projects below the value.

He added that this "threshold value" is the highest among all 12 TPPA countries, but declined to divulge what the number is.

“Of course, that is what I say and the public has got to be convinced. They will be in a position to make an accurate assessment once the document is in public domain,” he told reporters.

Another contentious area of the TPPA are its provisions on the investor-state dispute system (ISDS), which some critics claim could impinge on national sovereignty.

However, Mustapa assured that a number of safeguards have been put in place.

Among others, issues related to national security, public health, and tobacco control cannot be challenged through ISDS, he said.

Speaking on the benefits of TPPA, Mustapa said Malaysia has been able to get most of the concessions that it was bargaining for, and the ministry is quite happy with the market access that it stands to gain.

He said TPPA would allow Malaysia to gain greater access to markets in four countries that it currently does not have free trade agreements with, namely the US, Canada, Mexico, and Peru.

“We are satisfied with the offers given for textiles to the US market, automotive components to TPP markets including Mexico.

“For electrical, electronic, oil palm, and rubber products, our team have managed to get an attractive package that would surely help us penetrate TPP markets,” he said.

Overall, the TPPA involves 12 countries along the Pacific Rim including Malaysia.

He added that the ministry is also happy with the exemptions given to Malaysian GLCs and recognition for bumiputera issues.

On the other hand, he said the ministry is still "not 100 percent" happy with the TPPA’s chapter on ISDS, although he conceded that it is still a good compromise.