Malaysia will intensify collaboration with other palm oil producing countries to consider more concerted efforts to voice its strong concern before the various committees under the WTO, Mustapa said.
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Mustapa Mohamed says renegotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) to make significant changes may be difficult.
The Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said in a twitter comment on Friday that: “We have achieved a balanced deal for all parties involved. Renegotiation will not only take a long time but also alter the balance of benefits for parties.”
He was responding to US President Donald Trump's statement that he had asked his advisers to look into rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.
The TPPA is a trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
Signed by the 12 countries on Feb 4, 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand the Agreement has not yet entered into force.
On Jan 23, 2017, Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum to withdraw the US from TPP. The Agreement as it stands cannot enter into force without the US, as it accounts for 60% of the combined GDP of the 12 TPP members.
In light of the US withdrawal, the TPP Ministers from the remaining 11 member countries convened a meeting on May 21, 2017 on the sideline of the APEC MRT Meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam and affirmed the economic and strategic importance of TPP, particularly as a vehicle for regional economic integration.
Negotiators from the 11 countries met over several rounds to find ways to implement the TPPA.
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