Expect US to keep close watch on M'sia over TPPA

by Koh Jun Lin     Published 28 Nov 2015     Source : Malaysiakini

United States will be expected to scrutinise Malaysian laws to see whether the country has held up its end of the bargain in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

When that happens, according to Klang MP Charles Santiago, Malaysia's claims that it only needs to provide five years of data exclusivity for biologics will not hold water.

 “As part of the requirement by the US Congress to accept a free trade agreement, there is something called a certification process.

A bleak future awaits workers under TPPA, warns MP

by Koh Jun Lin     Published 28 Nov 2015     Source : Malaysiakini

Subcontracted and outsourced labourers with no job security nor benefits will become more widespread in Malaysia under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), warned Klang MP Charles Santiago.

Presently, he said, Malaysian law allows only the plantation sector to hire such workers, although it is also prevalent in other sectors, despite it being illegal.

However, with Malaysia signing a TPPA side agreement with the United States, this will allow all sectors of the Malaysian economy to hire outsourced labour.

DAP claims TPP side deal will risk job security for blue- and white-collar workers in Malaysia

November 27, 2015     Source : The Malay Mail Online

PETALING JAYA, Nov 27 — The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) side agreement on labour between Malaysia and the US will expose factory and even office workers to job insecurity as it will legalise labour outsourcing and subcontracting, a DAP lawmaker said today.

Klang MP Charles Santiago from the DAP said workers who are outsourced and subcontracted, which is currently legal only in the plantation sector but practised widely in factories across sectors, do not have security of tenure nor social protections like the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Socso.

“Subcontracting and outsourcing sets a dangerous precedent,” Santiago told a press briefing here.

Worker protections under TPPA just window dressing, says opposition MP

November 27, 2015    From : HAKAM    Originally from : The Malaysian Insider

Worker protections in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) actually amount to nothing, an opposition lawmaker said, as Putrajaya seeks to play up these widely lauded aspects of the contentious pact.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said a big reason for this is because the TPPA would legalise labour sub-contractors and out-sourcing companies, which are notorious for the way they treat workers.

In fact, legally, the Malaysian government currently does not allow labour contracting except in the plantation sector due to problems in how they operate and treat workers.

Drug prices won’t rise? Rubbish, says Klang MP

by  Sheith Khidhir Bin Abu Bakar  November 27, 2015     Source : Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Klang MP Charles Santiago today censured a senior official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) for claiming that medicine prices will not go up when the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) comes into force.

Reacting to a statement made yesterday by J Jayasiri, MITI’s Deputy Director-General for Strategy and Monitoring, Santiago said prices would remain high as long as protection was in place.

“Protection means that there will be a form of monopoly,” he told FMT. He cited the case of Jordan, where he said prices went up 17 per cent after protection was put in place.

US-China battle for Asean - where do we stand?

by Koh Jun Lin     Published 21 Nov 2015    Source : Malaysiakini

While Malaysia plays to both sides as the United States and China jockey for influence in the Asean region, Klang MP Charles Santiago warned that Malaysia will not be able to keep this up forever.

Charles said China has not has not been sitting idly while the US tried to solidify its influence through the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), but instead has been bankrolling projects around the Asean region, including in Malaysia.

This can be expected to intensify next year, he said, if Malaysia’s economy grows weaker and the government is forced to cut its budget further.

TPPA signatories must be set to lose assets in disputes

by Koh Jun Lin     Published 21 Nov 2015     Source : Malaysiakini

Governments that fail to pay up after losing an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) lawsuit are likely to see their foreign assets seized by investors, Klang MP Charles Santiago said.

Charles said the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which also has provisions for an ISDS, allows for such seizures to take place.

As an example, he said, a German company that won an ISDS case against Thailand had once learned that Thai Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn had landed in Germany in a private jet.

TPPA will force rewrite of laws, says MP

by  Sheith Khidhir Bin Abu Bakar    November 20, 2015   Source : Free Malaysia Today



PETALING JAYA: Klang MP Charles Santiago claims that the chapter on investments in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) allows foreign companies to sue the government if its policies threaten their profits.

Speaking today in one of his chapter-by-chapter reviews of the TPPA, Santiago said the ninth chapter of the 30-chapter agreement was the most controversial as it meant corporations could challenge the decisions of both the courts and Parliament.

He said that although other free trade agreements (FTAs) to which Malaysia was a party had similar chapters, it was a bigger issue in the TPPA because of the broadness of topics covered in its other chapters.

FTAs create boom in business of suing govts

by  Sheith Khidhir Bin Abu Bakar    November 20, 2015   Source ： Free Malaysia Today 

PETALING JAYA: The business of suing governments has flourished as nations enter into various free trade agreements (FTAs), according to Klang MP Charles Santiago.

Speaking today as he reviewed a chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), Santiago claimed that there had been a “mushrooming” of legal firms that specialize in helping multinational corporations sue governments.

He said that suits against governments that allegedly violate FTAs would often be settled outside the courts by international arbitration tribunals.

MP dares Najib to show how TPP makes M’sia ‘competitive’

by  Sheith Khidhir Bin Abu Bakar     November 18, 2015    Source : Free Malaysia Today 

PETALING JAYA: The prime minister has been challenged by an Opposition MP to show the people exactly how the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will make Malaysia more competitive than it is now.

Speaking to FMT, Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang) said neither Prime Minister Najib Razak nor International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed had backed their claims of competitiveness with any solid facts.

“They have not backed their claims on why Malaysia would be more competitive. Repeating the word competitive over and over will not make the country competitive,” he said.

Opposition MPs cry foul over minister’s misleading explanations on TPP medicine patents

November 12, 2015     Source : The Malay Mail Online

PETALING JAYA, Nov 12 — Opposition lawmakers criticised trade minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed today for apparently misrepresenting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement on the length of drug patents.

They pointed out that drug patents and data exclusivity were extended to eight years in the Pacific free trade treaty, not five as the international trade and industry minister previously announced.

“So that means our minister, who has signed the agreement, doesn’t know what is in the agreement. This is horrifying,” Klang MP Charles Santiago said today at the PKR headquarters.

TPPA - did minister mislead public on medicine costs?

by Koh Jun Lin     Published 12 Nov 2015    Source : Malaysiakini

Opposition members of the parliamentary caucus on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) have accused International Trade and Investment Minister Mustapa Mohamed of misleading the public on its impact on the cost of medicines.

They said that while Mustapa told the public that Malaysia had only been granted a five-year protection period for clinical trial data, the TPPA actually stipulates two options.

These being that TPPA partners may either provide an eight-year data protection or a five-year protection data accompanied with other measures that would have the same effect as an eight-year data protection period.

TPPA: Who are the winners and losers?

 FMT Reporters   November 9, 2015   Source : Free Malaysia Today 

KLANG: Klang MP Charles Santiago today demanded that Prime Minister Najib Razak explain his statement about the inevitability of some countries losing out in any free trade agreement (FTA).

He was referring to Najib’s recent remark that “there will be winners and losers in the process, but the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages of FTAs.”

Speaking at a press conference, Santiago said Najib and International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed must pinpoint for the public who would be the winners and losers in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and explain how the losers would be compensated.

Is TPPA legal, human-rights compliant, asks MP

by Zikri Kamarulzaman     Published 9 Nov 2015    Source : Malaysiakini

A DAP lawmaker wants the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) and the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) to review the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

Klang MP Charles Santiago said this was to ensure that the free trade agreement complied with Malaysian laws.

This is especially for the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) chapter, which allows foreign investors to sue governments over public policy.

TPPA language too technical, says Klang MP

by  Sheith Khidhir Bin Abu Bakar   November 9, 2015    Source : Free Malaysia Today

KLANG: Klang MP Charles Santiago has urged the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to translate the contents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) into layman’s Malay, Tamil and Mandarin.
Speaking at a press conference, Santiago noted that the contents of the agreement had been made available online, but he complained that it had not been translated from English and that it used too much jargon even in its English version for most members of the public to understand.

“First of all not everyone in the country understands English, not even in Parliament,” he said. “But even those who are proficient in English won’t be able to understand this.”