AS Malaysia continues the debate on the pros and cons before the deadline for the final ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), I would like to add a private sector perspective to this important step.
After the abortive bilateral Malaysia-US free trade agreement talks in 2009, there was much anticipation and apprehension in 2014 when Malaysia decided to participate in the negotiations of the 12 nation Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). This time around Malaysia was not alone in negotiating with the US as many of the other negotiating countries also found many of the initial US demands on intellectual property, investor state dispute settlements (ISDS) requirements, etc, as too onerous. Over many months of negotiations, they collectively succeeded in scaling back these conditions and completed the TPPA. When President Trump withdrew the US from the TPPA, the other 11 members agreed to proceed with the agreement with certain items suspended and renamed it the CPTPP in March this year.