Letters - We should pull out of TPPA talks

NEGOTIATIONS on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in Hawaii are expected to be its last round. The chief negotiators and their team will meet on July 24-27 followed by the meeting of trade ministers on July 28-31.
The ministers are expected to resolve all the outstanding issues and to conclude the TPPA text by July 31. After some editing and "legal scrubbing", the agreement is expected to be signed in October or November 2015.
The meetings represent the last chance for Malaysia to make the right choices that will affect the people and our future generations.
The Consumers Association of Penang is convinced that the TPPA is an agreement that is deeply flawed and will have devastating effects on the Malaysian economy and society, while bringing hardly any benefits at all.
We therefore call on the prime minister, the minister of international trade and industry, and the Cabinet, to withdraw Malaysia from the TPPA negotiations and to not be a part of the conclusion of the negotiations or the eventual signing of the agreement.
We also call on all members of Parliament to be aware of the issues and to speak up against Malaysia's continuing participation, and to take a vote against Malaysia joining the TPPA.
At this negotiations, there is great danger that the United States will put intense pressure on Malaysia to agree to its terms and conditions on the remaining issues of the TPPA.
The US believes it is in a strong position now because the president has obtained fast track authority from the Congress. This allows the US Administration to place the TPPA in front of the US Congress for it to vote "yes or no" but not to change the text.
There is thus the danger that the US will try to ram through its views on the outstanding issues that will be the focus of attention in the Hawaii meeting.
Among the main issues at this round of negotiations will be:
» Making the intellectual property protection longer and stronger for the benefit of transnational companies, particularly the pharmaceutical industry, and thus weakening the role and availability of cheaper generic medicines.
» Whether Malaysia will be able to take health measures such as control over tobacco marketing which is being challenged by many provisions of the TPPA.
» Expanding the rights of copyright holders and thus making textbooks, journals, scientific information and digital information expensive for longer.
» Eliminating import duties on almost all items, and allowing foreign companies free entry into the service sectors.
» Pressurising Malaysia to join many international treaties, including UPOV 1991, which will reduce the ability of farmers to control their own seeds and make them dependent on and pay royalties on seeds belonging to transnational companies.
» Finalising the details of the investor-to-state dispute system, whereby foreign investors are enabled to claim billions of ringgit from the government for any loss of future profits due to introduction or changes in national or state policies or even in implementing existing laws and policies.
» Asking Malaysia to accept new rules on government procurement whereby the government loses the right to provide preferences to local businesses in its procurement of goods and services.
» Asking Malaysia to accept new rules on state-owned enterprises in which companies linked to the government will not be allowed to receive government assistance or to give preferences to local people and companies when buying or selling materials or services.
» Forbidding or restricting the right of government to regulate the flow of funds and giving unprecedented rights to foreign financial institutions to sue the government in an international tribunal.
If the Malaysian minister and his delegation succumb to the pressures, the adverse effects will include the following:
» Higher prices for medicines, making them out of reach of the poor and the middle class. For example, the latest medicines for Hepatitis C now cost over RM300,000 for a 12-week treatment.
» Local generic medicine companies will find it more difficult to survive, and import of many cheap generic medicines will also be difficult and delayed. This will deprive Malaysian patients of their right to access to treatment, and cause many thousands of unnecessary deaths and continued untreated serious ailments.
» The protection of public health through control over tobacco sales will be compromised as these measures can be challenged by the tobacco companies making use of TPPA provisions. The sale of tobacco products kills many thousands of Malaysians each year.
» The elimination of tariffs across the board will threaten the viability of many local industries, and threaten the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of local people.
» Thousands of small scale farmers will have their livelihoods threatened by cheap imports and they have to pay more for their seeds and other agricultural inputs.
» Students and other Malaysians will have to pay high prices for their books and information materials for longer, or else forgo these because of the higher prices.
» Government will be restricted from regulating the flow of funds in and out of the country, thus losing a crucial policy tool to ensure financial stability and avoid financial crises. This will be especially detrimental because of our vulnerability to new global financial crises.
» Our local businesses and people will no longer be able to enjoy preferences or assistance from government projects and expenditure, as foreigners from TPPA countries will be given treatment equal to or better than the citizens.
» State enterprises and companies in which government has a stake will be curbed in their operations and the large foreign companies will be better able to take over their share of the local market.
» The sovereign right of the nation to make policies and of Parliament to enact laws and the judiciary to interpret laws will be jeopardised because of the TPPA's investor-state dispute system whereby foreigners can sue the government in a foreign tribunal which has been shown to be biased in favour of the foreign investors.
While the TPPA will have such serious adverse effects on Malaysians, there is hardly any benefit that the TPPA will bring. Malaysia already enjoys market access to the US and other developed countries for almost all our important products, while market access to other Asean and Asian countries is already obtained through our trade agreements with them.
There is thus no reason for Malaysia to join the TPPA. It is not too late for the government to make the right decision, and withdraw from the TPPA before it concludes this coming week.
There should be no embarrassment to withdraw from an agreement which does not benefit but instead harms the country. Many other countries have made decisions not to complete their negotiations when faced with an outcome of a trade agreement that is unfavourable to them.
Instead, it would be a shame and a national tragedy to join in an agreement as comprehensive and as damaging as the TPPA, which will undo the Independence that the country's past leaders have won for Malaysia, and which will damage our prospects for future economic and social development.
The prime minister, the minister for international trade and industry, and the Cabinet should make the decision now not to join the TPPA and to discontinue being part of the negotiations.
S. M. Mohamed Idris
President
Consumers Association of Penang