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.
“Since the TPPA is an agreement that covers such a huge spectrum of topics, you have to fundamentally rewrite all the laws in the country because the chapter will have effects on all the other chapters,” he said.

“It covers all facets of the economy; so Parliament will be very busy in the next two years amending laws.”

He added that although, unlike other FTAs, the TPPA had a provision where tobacco companies could not sue governments based on health policies, the provision could still be manipulated through advertising.

“My question is, if the government has a problem with an advertisement that a corporation has made, can that be challenged since that falls under the Services chapter of the agreement?” he said.

He also said that even if corporations couldn’t sue the government under the TPPA, they could always do so under other FTAs that Malaysia is party to.

Currently Malaysia is a party to eight FTAs and 12 bilateral investment treaties.