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Malaysia should not give in to a new TPP

  • Publication Date | November 9, 2017
  • Document Type | Media Statement
  • Programmes | Development & Planning
  • Issues | Trade & Investment
  • Tags | Climate, Economic Justice, ISDS, TPP, Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, UPOV
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In the next few days, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Trade and Industry will be making a major decision on behalf of Malaysia on whether to join other countries to revive and sign a new Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) without the United States.

They will be at a meeting in Danang, Vietnam, where the remaining 11 TPP countries (including Malaysia) are meeting to agree to a new text of the TPP, which they hope will be signed in Danang by the political leaders in the next few days.

CAP has been urging the government not to join a new TPP which will have 11 members (TPP-11) without the United States (which has pulled out of the TPP).  We maintain that it makes no sense to join the TPP when the main benefit (which is access to the US market) will no longer be available, while the costs of joining will be very serious.  

At the very least, Malaysia should make demands in the Danang talks now going on that several portions of the existing TPP draft that are especially damaging to Malaysia should be removed or suspended.  

According to media reports, many of the TPP-11 countries are now proposing to “suspend” chapters or parts of the original TPP draft that they find unreasonable, because these were in the text at the insistence of the United States.  Now that the US is no longer a TPP member, the portions of the text that the US proposed and insisted on in exchange for access to the US market should be removed from the new TPP text.

In this context, CAP strongly feels that Malaysia should insist on the removal or suspension of the following:

  • The chapter on investment that contains the investor state dispute settlement system (ISDS) which allows foreign investors to sue the government for alleged loss of future profits in a foreign tribunal. Many countries have been asked to pay hundreds of millions or even billions of US dollars to foreign investors due to this clause.  Some TPP-11 countries including New Zealand are now asking for suspension of the ISDS clause. Malaysia should at the very least also insist on this suspension, and should not be silent on this issue.
  • The chapter on intellectual property has several dangerous clauses that will harm Malaysian consumers and farmers. Malaysia should take a lead role in asking for deletion of clauses that make it impossible or difficult to make use of flexibilities in the national patent laws that enable the use of generic medicine, such as the recent excellent move by the government to make new Hepatitis C medicines available at RM1,000 per patient rather than the RM300,000 that patients have been paying. Malaysia should insist on deleting from the TPP the texts requiring countries to disallow national laws that reject granting patents for non-genuine inventions, or to grant extra years for patents, or other clauses that delay or prevent the use of cheaper generics. Malaysia should also insist on the removal of the existing TPP clause that requires TPP countries to join UPOV-1991, an international treaty that makes it difficult for our local farmers from making use of seeds including those saved from the current planting season. Malaysia has for decades refused to join UPOV-1991, but would have to if the TPP text is not changed.
  • Malaysia should insist on the suspension on the chapters on Government Procurement and State-Owned Enterprises (SOE). The procurement chapter prohibits or makes it difficult for the country to have its own policies on the granting of government procurement for projects and supply of products and services, as the TPP requires that companies from other TPP countries be given the same rights as locals.   The SOE chapter requires TPP countries to impose conditions on the way government-linked companies operate including their procurement policies, their ability to obtain loans or equity from the government, etc. These touch on extremely sensitive issues that affect national sovereignty.  Malaysia has throughout the earlier TPP negotiations tried to resist these chapters.  Now that the US is no longer in the TPP, Malaysia should insist on suspending or deleting these chapters.  The concessions given to Malaysia in the original TPP are inadequate to protect the country’s ability to make policies on these key issues.
  • E-Commerce. The chapter on E-commerce is very controversial as it involves  issues such as privacy of data and whether countries can require that data (which is the life blood of e-commerce) can be stored in national locations rather than abroad.  Some TPP-11 countries are insisting that these sensitive issues should not be included in the TPP, now that the main proponent (the US) is no longer in the TPP.  Malaysia should support suspension of the e-commerce chapter.

Malaysia should not be rushed into agreeing on a new TPP-11 text in the next days in Danang.  Many issues of great national importance are at stake.  CAP’s demand is for Malaysia to pull out altogether from the TPP  especially since the benefit of access to the US market is now not available.  But at the very least, it should stand firm and insist on deletion or suspension of chapters and portions of the TPP text that are against our national interest, including those listed above.     

SM Mohamed Idris

President

Consumers Association of Penang

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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