Flexibility is key to signing of Pacific trade pact, Najib says at Apec dialogue - Bernama

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today expressed his concern on a few areas in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) at the Apec CEO Summit dialogue in Bali.

He also stressed that "flexibility" would be key to the successful negotiation of the agreement at the dialogue themed Investment in Infrastructure and Human Capital - Investing for Economic Resilience.

“We do have a few areas of great concern because TPP is a different free trade agreement,” said Najib, who was a panel member with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in response to a question by the moderator, Diane Brady, a senior editor with Bloomberg, about his concerns on the TPPA.

The prime minister said the TPPA goes beyond the normal trade and investment in the free trade agreements that Malaysia has with many countries.

“As you go beyond that, into areas of intellectual properties, investor-state dispute settlement, government procurement, state-owned enterprises, environment and labour, so you impinge on fundamentally the sovereign right of the country to make regulation and policy.

"That is a tricky part and that is why we ask for flexibility,” he said.

Najib had said yesterday that it was unlikely that the TPPA would be concluded by year-end, the scheduled deadline.

The TPPA is a proposed free trade agreement under negotiation by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) member countries – Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, South Korea, The United States and Vietnam. – Bernama, October 7, 2013.

(Source: The Malaysian Insider)

PM foresees TPPA negotiations to be tough

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak foresees the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations to be tough in the next few months.

The key to it, he said, is to be flexible as with flexibility things will get done in the end.

He said this when answering a question during his talk, “The New Meetings, “Moderation: The New Modernity”, co-sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) Religion and Foreign Policy Initiative at the Peter G. Peterson Hall, The Harold Pratt House, New York.

The participant who asked the question is an CFR member in Washington, DC, who was participating in the meeting via video-conference.

Najib, who is also the Finance Minister, said Malaysia agreed to participate in the negotiations because he is a great believer in free trade and open regionalism.

Najib said he was looking at the context of increasing trade and investment which will be great for the nations involved, including Malaysia and the United States.