PETALING JAYA: Details on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is likely to be revealed by end of next year, mainly driven by US politics and trade content, says a barrister and a member of Hong Kong Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation, CL Lim.
Lim said the trade negotiations are half way done so far, plus with the upcoming midterm elections in the US restricting the authorities from closing the TPP negotiations sooner.
“The details on TPP cannot be revealed before the end of next year because we are coming up to mid-term elections in the US on Nov 4, 2013. We do not want the details of the negotiation text to be caught up in US elections,” he told the media at the International Trade Malaysia (Intrade) 2013 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Lim said the Obama administration needs approval of Congress for a ‘Trade Promotion Authority’ (TPA), which is a rule to speed up the talks to finalise the giant deal with 11 other Pacific Rim nations.
The TPA, which would allow any deal to move through Congress without amendments, expired in 2007 and so far there is no bill in Congress to renew it due to some issues such as recent fiscal fights, dissent over the new healthcare law and the government shutdown.
Moving on to the trade negotiations, Lim explained that the text is kept discrete because otherwise it will lock the negotiation process at the point.
He added that the TPP is very much beneficial to Malaysia and other fellow countries as it will have deals with a 800 million population market, from the current 40 million market.
“No doubt that there will be more opportunities that can be tapped into. I am very optimistic that TPP will be a reality.
Lim said some of the concerns were largely misunderstood but in return, the government has done a good job to explain the initiative to its critics.
A lot of concerns expressed on TPP in Malaysia were mainly on individual items, for example on procurement, environment, affordable drugs access and also on transparency level.
Representative of TPP countries are expected to meet in Singapore next month for the final meeting for the year.
Meanwhile, on the Intrade 2013, Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) chairman Noraini Ahmad said Malaysia has an open economy that places few barriers in the way of foreign services providers or importers.
However, she said local exporters often encounter barriers overseas which drives the organisation to take serious action to rectify it.
“This forum truly reflects the current pattern of global trend and is a good platform for business to continuously look beyond their borders for new opportunities and are becoming more interdependent,” she said.
Noraini also said that advocates of globalisation have demonstrated the efficiencies that trade liberalisation bring to both developed and developing countries.
“Internationalisation enhances the unique mix of capabilities of companies and indeed, a nation as a whole.”
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