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Groups oppose ratification of trans-Pacific trade agreement (CPTPP)

  • Publication Date | August 7, 2020
  • Document Type | Letter to the Editor
  • Programmes | Development & Planning
  • Issues | International Treaties, Trade & Investment
  • Tags | Covid-19, CPTPP, ISDS, RCEP, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
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We, the undersigned organisations, have consistently raised concerns with successive Malaysian governments about the serious implications for Malaysia of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which merely temporarily suspended 22 of the more than 1000 provisions mostly imposed by the USA in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

Former International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Darell Leiking confirmed in his statement on 4 August 2020 that on 29 November 2019 the Cabinet (which included current Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Azmin Ali) “agreed that the government had taken a sound step by not ratifying the CPTPP given the negative impacts to domestic industry”. This followed “over a year of reflection and research” from earlier Cabinet decisions on 5 September 2018 and 9 January 2019.

Therefore, the current Government’s position has to be consistent in rejecting the CPTPP.

Datuk Leiking said that Datuk Seri Azmin Ali’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, now the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) found the CPTPP would worsen Malaysia’s trade balance, cause a loss of tariff revenue and increase exposure to investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) which could require the Malaysian government to pay billions of dollars in compensation.

We welcome the Cabinet decision of 31 July 2019 to reject ISDS on principle and its success in getting ISDS removed from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). However, ISDS with all the problems it causes is still in the CPTPP.

Our research and analysis of the CPTPP text includes the concerns mentioned by Datuk Leiking and many other problematic provisions in the CPTPP such as requiring farmers to pay royalties for seeds for 20 or 25 years and prohibiting them from sharing seeds, restrictions on subsidies to fisherfolk, jeopardising small and medium sized enterprises, as well as undermining consumer protection in financial regulations through the e-commerce chapter.

We have long called for comprehensive studies of the impact of the CPTPP and we are glad that additional studies were done.

We also stress that the CPTPP is now out of date. Since the CPTPP was negotiated and signed, the world is in the middle of a pandemic with COVID-19. The World Health Organization’s chief scientist has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic will take four to five years to get under control, and its Director-General tells us that “there will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future.” With the economic crisis that already started before the pandemic, the world is now facing unprecedented challenges and so governments are taking unprecedented steps to deal with it.

Governments need maximum policy space to deal with the pandemic and assist the economic recovery. However, the CPTPP severely restricts the policy and regulatory space needed to deal with the pandemic and its crises. For example, a number of the measures the Malaysian government has taken to deal with this pandemic (and may need to take in future) could violate the CPTPP.

Countries which have already ratified the CPTPP such as Australia have already had to violate their CPTPP commitments to deal with the pandemic and its economic crises. Australia now screens all foreign investment even though under the CPTPP it would only screen investments more than A$252 million (about RM760 million)– this is to ensure that in these troubled times foreign investors do not buy up Australian assets.

Even before the pandemic, the costs to Malaysia of ratifying the CPTPP outweighed the benefits. The only chapter Malaysia could be expected to benefit from in the CPTPP is the goods chapter via additional exports of products, but even in that chapter, Malaysia’s trade balance would worsen according to EPU. So there are no net benefits to outweigh the costs of other CPTPP chapters such as investment, intellectual property, services, electronic commerce, government procurement, state-owned enterprises etc.

Given that the costs of ratifying the CPTPP outweighed the benefits even before the pandemic, and in light of the CPTPP’s restrictions on Malaysia’s ability to respond to the current pandemic and its economic crisis, let alone future pandemics and crises, Malaysia must not ratify the CPTPP.

We are shocked that Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, now Minister of International Trade and Industry, who was in the various Cabinet meetings that discussed the CPTPP, and whose Ministry at that time was fully aware of the dangers of the CPTPP, is now willing to bind the country to an agreement that is the last thing we need in these turbulent economic times.

The Malaysian Cabinet’s decision of 29 November 2019 is clear on not ratifying the CPTPP. This has been proven right by the pandemic and affirms the demands made by a broad spectrum of Malaysian civil society groups. The current government and future Malaysian governments must stand by the decision not to ratify the CPTPP.

Signatories

Consumers Association of Penang | IDRIS Association | Majlis Tindakan Economic Melayu (MTEM) | Malaysian Women’s Action on Tobacco Control and Health (MyWaTCH) | Positive Malaysian Treatment Access and Advocacy Group (MTAAG+) | Padi Rescue | Parti Sosialis Malaysia | PeSAWAH | PT Foundation | Sahabat Alam Malaysia

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Testimonials

Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah satu badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang telah sekian lama berjuang mempertahan kelestarian alam. Ia juga mendidik masyarakat tentang pentingnya kebersamaan dalam pemikiran dan tindakan agar alam ini dapat kita wariskan kepada generasi hadapan dalam keadaan yang elok dan terpelihara. Dalam pada itu juga SAM giat membantu golongan nelayan pantai dalam memperjuangkan hak-hak mereka sehinggalah tertubuhnya Persatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING). Nelayan pantai sepenuh masa ini dididik oleh SAM sehingga mereka mampu memainkan peranan sebagai pemimpin nelayan yang meneruskan kesinambungan memperjuangkan hak-hak nelayan pantai lainnya. Sebagai contoh SAM telah berjaya menyedarkan masyarakat nelayan keperluan menjaga hutan paya bakau untuk kebaikan hasil tangkapan nelayan itu sendiri.
Jamaluddin Mohamad Bualik
Jamaluddin Mohamad BualikPersatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Jaringan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING)
During the 1980s, I used to read about the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) in the news. After retirement, some time in 2001, while lazing around, I read news about the construction of a carbon in leach plant using sodium cyanide to extract gold in Bukit Koman. My friends and I visited CAP and we were introduced to SAM and her legal team. We discussed the details of filing a case against the gold mining company and the department of environment with Ms Meenakshi Raman and her legal team. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between lawyers from SAM and many of us from Bukit Koman. We had many ups and downs in our struggle to shut down the gold mine that was causing a nuisance in our village. But, as a community we never gave up because SAM had our backs.
Hue Fui How
Hue Fui HowSecretary, Bukit Koman Ban Cyanide in Goldmining Action Committee (BCAC)
Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah sebuah NGO yang memperjuangkan nasib masyarakat luar bandar khasnya. SAM menerima aduan-aduan masyarakat dan menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapi. SAM telah mewujudkan ramai aktivis-aktivis sosial dan alam sekitar. Pada era 1980 dan 90an SAM sangat dihormati oleh masyarakat dan agensi kerajaan. Apabila media sosial menguasai maklumat maka SAM pun terkesan dan masalah masyarakat terus disalurkan dengan pelbagai cara. SAM perlu mewujudkan aktivis-aktivis pelapis yang muda untuk terus membantu masyarakat. SAM juga perlu membuat perubahan supaya banyak turun kelapangan dan jangan mengharapkan laporan media sahaja. Tingkatkan prestasi sebagaimana pada zaman kegemilangan SAM di era 80-90an.
Che Ani Mt Zain
Che Ani Mt Zain
SAM taught me the importance of social activism and the role it plays in upholding the rights of people and the protection of the environment. In my experience, SAM has never hesitated to speak up in defence of people and their environment, and has gone the extra mile to champion their rights, by helping communities take their battles to the higher ups and even to the courts.
Jessica Binwani
Jessica BinwaniPublic/Private Interest Lawyer
Semenjak kami kenal SAM, banyak pengalaman dan pengetahuan yg kami dapat. Kami telah belajar cara membuat baja asli daripada SAM. Semenjak itu, bermulalah minat kami dalam aktiviti pertanian. Dengan memperolehi kemahiran dalam membuat baja asli dan penanaman lestari, kami juga telah dapat menambahkan pendapatan sampingan kami. Ini lebih baik daripada tanah kami terbiar dan tidak diusahakan. Terima kasih SAM kerana sudi memberi bantuan dan tunjuk ajar kepada Persatuan kami.
Chedo Anak Nyuwen
Chedo Anak NyuwenPersatuan Penduduk Sg Buri, Bakong, Marudi
My journey with SAM started when her community organisers took me to the meet the paddy farmers of Kedah, connecting my growing interest in environmental law with our people who struggle to work the land in the face of pollution, replacement of traditional seeds with commercial hybrids and their accompanying chemical package of fertilisers and weedicides. I then had the honour to work with SAM in the struggle for the rights of the native communities of Sarawak, in defence of their forests from massive logging and destructive mega-projects. In every issue that SAM takes up, she combines rigorous research with the realities and voices of the communities to advocate for policies and laws that care for people and nature. From the courts to the elected legislators to policy makers and implementers and to the United Nations, SAM walks side by side with the communities in Malaysia. How can I not be inspired by the vision and passion of the generations of women and men who coalesce to form SAM?
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Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Headquarters)
No. 1, Jalan Joki, 11400 Penang,
Malaysia
Tel: +604 827 6930
Fax: +604 827 6932

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Marudi Office)
129A, First Floor,
Jalan Tuanku Taha,
P.O.Box 216,
98058 Marudi, Baram, Sarawak,
Malaysia
Tel & Fax: +6085 758 973

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