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.
“In the United States, the TPA (Trade Promotion Authority) has said that there will be so much money that they’ll be able to compensate those who lose,” he said. “So what’s Malaysia’s form of compensation?”

He criticised Najib for his statement, saying there was no basis for saying there were going to be winners and losers when there had not been a cost-benefit analysis.

He said it was “absurd” of Putrajaya to say it would carry out a cost-benefit analysis only after the TPPA negotiations had been concluded.

“When people go to war, there is a prior cost-benefit analysis, but in Malaysia we only have the cost-benefit analysis after the war is already over,” he quipped.

He demanded that the government submit the TPPA document to the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) for it to evaluate and tell the public whether or not it violates human rights.

“If the government does not submit the document to Suhakam in two weeks’ time, then my office will submit it ourselves,” he said.