Izzah: Stop giving excuses on TPPA

Malaysia’s current position within Asean and BRIC gives access to 60 per cent of the world’s population and 40 per cent of the global economy.

KUALA LUMPUR: Nurul Izzah has called on the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to release immediately the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) that was promised on the US-led Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) initiative.

“We strongly urge the government to stop giving any excuses and release the full report to be scrutinized by the public,” said the PKR vice-president and Lembah Pantai MP. “There has been a lot of negative reports and objections on TPPA.”

The options that the government has right now is either to release the full text and CBA of TPPA, or start to look at all pertaining strategies on international trade, lest we lose out on potential markets that are beneficial to Malaysia, she added.

“We should not be looking only to far away places, when our own neighbours can provide us with a world of opportunities,” said Izzah. “The government should get its priorities right on international trade, and should consider all options, to choose what would give the best outcome for the country.”

She cited some authorities against the TPPA.

Jayant Menon of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stated on Friday that “Malaysia has more to gain from entering a trade partnership with its Asean and regional neighbours that would better protect its interests than joining the contentious TPPA”.

Khazanah Research Institute, likewise, agreed that “Malaysia stood more to gain from Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) partners than the TPPA”.

“Both viewpoints are in line with PKR’s position that it would be more appropriate and ideal for Malaysia to focus on strengthening its regionalization efforts through the Asean Economic Community (AEC) which will come into force in 2015,” said Izzah.

She noted that Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim had previously said that “by leveraging on a much more powerful trade, investment and economic bloc i.e. AEC, Malaysia would be in a better position to negotiate for preferential access to developed countries instead of undertaking negotiations individually in plurilateral FTAs such as the TPPA”.

Anwar also said that Malaysia’s current position within Asean and the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations, with China being the country’s largest trading partner followed by Singapore and Japan, “we already have access to a market that is 60 per cent of the world’s population and 40 per cent of the global economy”.

This view was also repeated by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, in a keynote address at the 6th World Chinese Economic Forum (WCEF).

Muhyiddin urged China and Asean to work even more closely to ensure stability in regional finance, economics and politics.

“These statements show that Malaysia does not have to rely on TPPA, and there is an abundance of other opportunities that it could potentially explore before committing in an agreement that can be detrimental to the country and the people,” said Izzah.

The Sustainability Council of New Zealand said earlier this year, continued Izzah, that the net benefit that the country will receive from TPPA is much less than what is targeted by the Peterson Institute.

“The report said that the US$4.1 billion net gain expected by the country is not a realistic target, and put the number at only a quarter of that.”