IP Rights chapter of TPP far from final: MITI

IP Rights chapter of TPP far from final: MITI: Page 2 of 2

By Gabey Goh August 2, 2013

‘Trust us’

In his speech welcoming attendees, Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed stressed that the open day hosted by his ministry was “not a public relations exercise.”

“The objective of today is for you all to say your piece and for me to listen. This has been the hottest topic in town for the past couple of months, and it is obvious to us that the TPP has generated a lot of interest,” he said.

Mustapa also reiterated that the TPP remains a work in progress, with nothing concluded.

“I know there has been a lack of trust in MITI and hope to breach the trust deficit. We aim to narrow the information gap, and hopefully we will be able to listen to some very frank views this morning,” he added.

During his presentation, deputy chief negotiator Isham said that the motivation for Malaysian joining the TPP in 2010 was to be part of the founding members of the agreement in order to play a more substantive role in its formulation and ensure that the nation’s concerns were adequately addressed.

“Had we joined at the end, we would have to accept whatever terms had already been finalised,” he added.

He also pointed out that to date, the country has already signed and implemented six bilateral and six regional FTAs.

“We are experienced enough with such agreements and have the competency to handle the negotiations for the TPP. We’ve been in this business for some time,” he added.

Isham noted that Malaysia’s trade with countries under FTAs have improved, pointing to the pact with Japan which helped improve trade from RM112.8 billion in 2005 to RM145.3 billion in 2012, with a major portion being palm oil exports.

"The successful conclusion of the TPP will form a huge duty free market of 800 million people with a combined GDP (gross domestic product) of US$27.5 trillion. This far surpasses Malaysia’s limited domestic market of 29.5 million people and a GDP of US$300 billion," he added.

The wish for public feedback was more than forthcoming, although most centred on the on-going lack of information shared by MITI.

According to a report by The Malaysian Insider, a coalition of groups and activists under Anti-TPP Action Group questioned why only a senior MITI official updated stakeholders on the state of negotiations up to the 18th round of talks in Kota Kinabalu.

"But where is MITI in this forum? What is the point of this forum – given the many questions that the public and civil society have about the TPP negotiations – if MITI is not on the panel of speakers?" the group said in a statement.
IP Rights chapter of TPP far from final: MITI: Page 2 of 2
Speaking to Digital News Asia (DNA) on the sidelines of the TPP open day, Dr Jeremy Malcolm (pic), a senior policy officer for Consumers International, noted that some of the participants were obviously expecting more than a public relations exercise today.

“But it was never likely that the Malaysian negotiators would reveal anything that wasn't already public knowledge. To MITI's credit, the panellists spoke freely, and endured the audience's question's stoically - but without offering many answers.

“It was telling that one of the audience members said; ‘I just hope that we don't read in the newspapers tomorrow that we all accept this agreement.’ It's clear that the majority in the audience didn't,” he added.

Malcolm has been following the TPP’s progression closely and when asked if Malaysia was the first in hosting a public forum to address concerns, he said that a number of the other countries have held similar national consultations.

“But all of the countries are under the same duties of confidentiality. A smaller number of the countries -- the United States and Canada, notably -- do allow certain industry and NGO (non-governmental organisation) representatives detailed information about the text if they are willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

“But the terms of that NDA prohibit them from publicly acting on what they have learned, so most have opted out of this Faustian bargain,” he said.

The next round of TPP negotiations is scheduled to be hosted in Brunei from Aug 22-30.