New TPP: What’s in it for us, DAP asks

Source : Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: DAP’s Charles Santiago has urged the government to come out with a new cost-benefit analysis to explain what is at stake for Malaysia if it proceeds with the trade pact that could replace the original 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.

The Klang MP said it was important for the government to give a clear picture of how the so-called TPP11 could impact Malaysia’s growth and if it would benefit businesses in the country.

The TPP11 involves all the countries which were part of the original trade pact, minus the US which pulled out after President Donald Trump took office a year ago.

Santiago said the analysis needed to be clear to state which sector would benefit and which could lose out.

“It should also show how many jobs will be created and how companies in the small-to-medium industries are going to compete,” he said.

Santiago has been a vocal critic of the TPP, saying that the treaty cannot proceed without the US as the country was responsible for coming up with the agreement and forcing other countries to make compromises.

He said the international trade and industry ministry needed to undertake a new cost-benefit analysis as the US was no longer part of the agreement.

“The entire focus for Malaysia to be part of the TPP was largely to get access to the US market. And now we don’t have it, but they still want to go on with that.

“Therefore it is necessary for them to present the new cost-benefit analysis,” Santiago said.

His comments followed a report by the Sydney Morning Herald on a leading business lobby group saying that the new TPP agreement would be at risk unless Australia’s bilateral agreements with some of the other countries in the pact are torn up.

The group was referring to the bilateral trade agreements Australia has with Japan, Chile, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei, which will be thrown in the bin and replaced with the broad sweeping powers of the TPP11.