Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), this was the new agreement after the TPPA(Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) did not take off - BUT the problem is that most of the 'not so good' elements are still in this agreement, which does not favour Malaysia, people, workers..
Will the PN government now 'quietly' and speedily sign this CPTPP agreement - without being concerned about Malaysians, workers, farmers, issue of sovereignty of Malaysia, its laws and its courts, ... STOP it - consult the people - be concerned for the POOR and the impact on the ordinary Malaysian...Be Transparent - REFERENDUM for Malaysians to make an INFORMED decision...
COVID-19 vaccines > Now, draconian copyright laws forces Malaysia to BUY such vaccines and medicines at HIGH PRICES. Copyrights should be limited for a minimum period, say 3 - 5 years, especially for medicines, agricultural/farming, etc > Thereafter, countries should be free to produce cheaper generic products. Now, the copyright is simply too long, and new trade agreements want to extend this further. It impacts on the poor - why should people die simply because they cannot afford these 'highly priced' medicines. No problem if copyright for music or movies are for long periods - but items linked to(or which the poor needs) should not be DENIED the poor by such inhumane unjust copyright agreements, that our government signs - sometimes with the informed consent of its people.
This CPTPP, which is an agreement between governments, which imposes legal obligation and rights on governments - again is granting rights to CORPORATIONS to sue Malaysia if their profits are affected by government actions, new policies even laws. If the government increases MINIMUM WAGE or even require additional safety measures to keep workers safe from Covid-19, these companies whose owners are from the countries who signed, can SUE Malaysia not in Malaysian Courts, but in some Arbitration Tribunal overseas, which will not even consider Malaysian current laws. That is that ISDS clause. No problem if corporations sue Malaysian government in Malaysian courts, for violation of their rights based on Malaysian laws...or some agreement/contract between the Corporation and Malaysian government. [Now, in this CPTPP, corporations are not a party to the agreement - they do not SIGN - hence corporations have no legal obligations/duties/responsibilities by agreement. SO UNFAIR - so WHY should Malaysia agree to such ISDS clauses? That removes the dispute from Malaysian Courts and even existing Malaysian laws? To fight at such international tribunals also means also 100 millions of Ringgit, and worse Malaysia may be liable to pay HIGH settlement sums? Malaysian law and Malaysian courts should apply for everyone even Corporations/Companies owned by foreign nationals/entities. Do we want a different law and/or standard to apply to local companies and foreign companies? Such agreements will also put fear in Malaysia to improve current laws for the benefit of Malaysians, workers, etc ...do we want this?
For raising minimum wages, Egypt sued by Veolia, a French multinational?
With the TPPA, there was much public discussions, criticisms > and the then Opposition parties during the BN rule were involved. But, for the CPTPP - it was not the same.
During the TPPA, Malaysia and some countries were found to non compliant with international labour standards - and Malaysia agreed to review and amend Malaysian labour laws - A condition placed on Malaysia(and some other countries) before they could be part of the TPPA Agreement - and Malaysia agreed. The Ministry of Human Resources started doing this, and proposed amendments were to be tabled in Parliament - it all stopped when the TPPA failed, with the exit of the US. Why did they not amend our archaic and unjust laws? Why stop bringing about reforms needed for workers?
BEWARE now our new Perikatan Nasional government may suddenly go ahead and sign this agreement unless we SPEAK OUT and stop it. Have a PUBLIC Consultation first? These rich MPs may not be affected unlike the rest of Malaysians, workers, farmers,...
MTUC has spoken out...
For the TPPA, PAS and Amanah, and a lot of political parties also spoke out and led the campaigns..
PAS wants the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) to be voted on in a referendum instead of being decided in Parliament."PAS proposes a people's referendum for the government to seek a mandate on whether to sign the agreement or not," PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said in a statement today. - 22/11/2015, MalaysiakiniParti Amanah Negara (Amanah) wants the government to hold a referendum to allow Malaysians to decide on the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).- 22/11/2015, Malaysiakini
We do not really need to sign Trade Agreements to open the market in other countries really - Malaysian products are now being marketed in so many different countries without any Trade Agreements.
One of the impact of the bad Trade Agreements signed - is that Malaysia cannot now even produce its own medicines like even paracetamol - and we have to buy them at so much higher price from the 'copyright holders' - and now, Malaysians have to go every month to government hospitals/clinics simply to collect our medicine supply - Previously, we got our medicines immediately, that will last until our next doctor's appointment. > Not only has the cost of medicines risen, but also the cost on Malaysian patients - how much time and cost is wasted simply to go every month simply to collect our medicines(not to see the doctor)
See some earlier relevant posts:-
TPPA - Only a PUBLIC REFERENDUM will demonstrate what Malaysians want?
Malaysia's Embarassingly Poor Worker and Trade Union Rights Reality - Malaysia – United States Labour Consistency Plan?
RCEP - Trade agreements that may make Malaysia not be able to introduce better labour laws, environmental protection, etc ...
TPPA text in Bahasa for rakyat to read and understand - Charles Santiago reiterates PRM's call
TPPA - The Malaysian people to decide rather than MPs/Senators? Referendum?
OK for Najib and other rich people, but us not-so-rich may die because cannot afford to buy medicine? TPPA?
Have a Referendum and allow Malaysians to decide whether Malaysia signs the TPPA or not?
TPPA : Malaysia Mesti Tarik Diri, Muktamad Minggu Ini
Jangan tandatangan TPPA - Harakahdaily
TPPA - Dewan Pemuda PAS tuntut hak dapat maklumatTPPA - ISDS Clauses - States never win,Only investors win awards ofdamages?
MTUC says NO to Malaysia signing agreements that will stagnate or erode worker rights
For raising minimum wages, Egypt sued by Veolia, a French multinational?
CPTPP Trade Liberalization Charade Continues
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The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement should be dead and buried
after President Trump announced US withdrawal immediately after his
inauguration in January 2017. After all, most major US presidential
candidates in the last election, including Hillary Clinton, had opposed
the TPP.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Encircling China with trade pact
However, the Japanese, Australian and Singaporean governments have kept the TPP alive,
first by mooting TPP11, i.e., minus the USA, later pretentiously
relabelled the Comprehensive and Progressive TPP (CPTPP), with the hope
that the US will rejoin later.
Other governments have remained ‘on board’ for various reasons, mainly foreign policy considerations, rather than with serious expectations of economic benefits, while ignoring the dangers and risks.
Last week, yet another ministerial meeting reiterated pious claims of steady progress as CPTPP boosters try to remain relevant despite the fast declining appetite for regional trade deals.
The CPTPP did not even get rid of the most onerous TPP provisions, but only suspended some intellectual property (IP) and other provisions, mainly of interest to the USA. These can easily be reincluded to bring the USA back in after the November election.
However, other onerous aspects, such as investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions, remain. In the wake of Covid-19, lawyers are already advising foreign investors how to use extraordinary coping measures to sue governments, which will cost them even if they win.
If re-elected, the Trump administration’s opposition to ISDS can easily be accommodated to bring the US back on board as it seeks new measures to isolate and weaken China. Biden will also revive a TPP avatar, having supported it before as Obama’s loyal Vice-President.
But reselling the TPP in the USA will not be easy. Already, many US manufacturing jobs have been lost due to corporations automating and relocating abroad. Trump has changed US public discourse so much that most Americans now blame globalization, immigration, China and foreigners for the problems they face.
False claims for trade deal
Various studies have shown that supposed trade gains from the TPP claimed by its advocates were greatly exaggerated and misleading. This should come as no surprise.
The US already has free trade agreements with six of the other 11 TPP countries. Trade barriers with the other five were already low in most cases, so there was little scope for further trade liberalization, except for US post-Vietnam war legislation.
All twelve also belong to the World Trade Organization (WTO) which concluded the ‘single largest trade agreement ever’ over a quarter century ago. For trade liberalization guru Jagdish Bhagwati, both bilateral and plurilateral FTAs undermine trade liberalisation welfare arguments.
For the Peterson Institute of International Economics (PIIE), the principal TPP advocate, gains mainly come from additional foreign direct investment (FDI), due to more investor rights, implying greater concessions from, and less gains for host economies.
But the official US International Trade Commission doubted PIIE claims of significant growth benefits in mid-2016, well before Trump was elected. Supposed gains were either dubious or paltry over the long-term time horizon involved.
Investor friendly rules?
Rather than promoting trade, the TPP really sought more transnational corporation (TNC)-friendly rules. After all, the 6350-page deal had been negotiated by various working groups including hundreds of major US corporate representatives. But by involving lobbyists, US negotiators may well have locked themselves into a deal of little interest to most other businesses.
Doubts also remain over whether most TNCs really value the CPTPP’s enhanced investor rights. The World Bank has found that investment treaties rank far below other considerations such as infrastructure, natural resource endowments, market size and growth potential.
Also, rules favouring foreign investors do not necessarily improve investment flows to host countries, let alone ensure development benefits without good national industrial policies in place.
Enriching rentiers
There is no evidence that stronger IP rights increase innovation,
research and development. Strengthening IP monopolies for powerful TNCs,
such as pharmaceutical firms, would raise the value of trade through
higher prices, not more goods and services.
Extending IP protection would raise the prices of pharmaceutical drugs, including ‘biologics’, significantly increasing health costs. For Medecins Sans Frontieres, the TPP would go down in history as the worst “cause of needless suffering and death” in developing countries.
US laws cannot protect consumers anywhere. Martin Shkreli infamously raised the price of a drug whose patent he had bought by 6000%, from USD12.50 to USD750! As ‘price-gouging’ is not unlawful in the US, he was convicted for unrelated financial fraud.
Meanwhile, powerful pharmaceutical TNCs have made clear their intention to charge high prices for new vaccines despite enjoying government subsidies. Whereas vaccines for smallpox, polio, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases were available at cost, higher costs, due to enhanced IPRs, will impose heavy human and economic tolls.
Enabling foreign corporate bullying
FDI was expected to go up, thanks to enhanced TPP investor protection.
Foreign companies could then sue TPP governments for ostensible loss of
profits due to policy changes, even if in the national or public
interest, e.g., to contain Covid-19 contagion.
ISDS is arbitered by private tribunals. This extrajudicial system supersedes national laws and judiciaries, with secret rulings not bound by precedent or subject to appeal.
All who have seriously studied TPP impacts concede that it offers little additional growth. Even the modest trade growth claims are premised on US market access, no longer on offer with the CPTPP, which incredibly, now claims even more growth benefits.
Without the USA, the CPTPP will mainly strengthen Japanese TNCs. With greater rights for foreign investors, domestic investments may even relocate abroad, e.g., to CPTPP tax havens. Declining foreign investment in recent years could thus accelerate with the CPTPP.
From the frying pan into the fire
The Covid-19 pandemic has precipitated severe recessions, which threaten
to become depressions, as many governments had to impose nationwide
‘stay in shelter’ lockdowns with physical distancing and other
preventive requirements disrupting economic life.
It is now clear that the CPTPP has not slowed growing trade protectionism.
Instead, transborder supply chains have been disrupted, sometimes
deliberately, with the US and Japan demanding ‘onshoring’, urging TNCs
to withdraw investments and outsourcing from China, also hurting
suppliers, many from Southeast Asia.- Inter-Press Services(IPS), 11/8/2020
MTUC to Perikatan, Pakatan: We don’t care about your spat, just don’t endorse CPTPP
KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 8): The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has called on the government not to endorse the ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), irrespective of the position the previous administration had taken on the free trade agreement.
“While International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali went to great lengths to point out that the Pakatan Rakyat government had agreed to endorse the ratification of the CPTPP on Sept 5, 2018, Pakatan leaders have claimed subsequent deliberations shown the Cabinet then had second thoughts about the decision,” noted the umbrella organisation for local trade unions.
“The MTUC does not wish to get caught in any political spat between the previous and present governments but urge the government not to endorse joining the CPTPP as it poses significant threats to worker rights and puts a large number of jobs at risk under the guise of free trade,” the MTUC said in a statement issued by its secretary-general J Solomon.
The government, it said, must not ignore the fact that the CPTPP lacks effective protection of worker rights and may well also result in the removal of other social, environmental and safety protection in place now.
“We find the CPTPP provides member countries with a lot of latitude to manoeuvre other nations in the group into removing important legislation on workers' welfare and rights under the pretext of reducing tariff barriers and championing free trade,” it said.
Insisting that the CPTPP only benefits major corporations, the MTUC said trade unions around the world have noted that the pact does not contain mechanisms to monitor member countries’ adherence to core International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards and conventions.
It also does not have any provisions to ensure that violations of ILO standards are penalised, added the MTUC.
“Furthermore, the CPTPP labour chapter also narrows the number of claims that can be taken against signatories for abuses of workers' rights as it says violations must be ‘in a manner affecting trade’. Similar agreements in other parts of the world show that almost always no action is taken against perpetrators of such abuses.
“The infamous Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in the CPTPP allows foreign investors to sue governments for regulations or actions that threaten their ability to make profit. Similar mechanisms were used in the past to challenge minimum wage laws as well as other rules that affect workers, such as those on health and safety,” said the MTUC.
The ISDS feature in the CPTPP, it said, poses a serious threat to the livelihood and welfare of workers in Malaysia.
“Corporations could deem unfair any change in policy that improves workers’ rights and conditions if they see it as a violation of their 'legitimate expectations', i.e. their expected profit. The expansive reach of the ISDS system allows multinational corporations to sue governments in secretive tribunals outside of the national legal system for unlimited taxpayer money.
“The CPTPP is likely to result in job losses in some sectors due to increased imports from member countries. The MTUC and unions worldwide are concerned that workers who lose jobs will be forced to take up new employment on precarious terms with low pay in the informal sector,” it added.
The MTUC noted that Mohamed Azmin had not disputed the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) findings revealed by his predecessor Datuk Darell Leiking that by joining the CPTPP, Malaysian imports would spike by RM10 billion against an increase of RM516 million in exports, resulting in Malaysia’s trade balance dipping by RM9.6 billion per year.
“Azmin has not presented a convincing case that would suggest it is in the interests of our workers, our economy and our society to join the CPTPP,” it said.
The MTUC is also concerned that the CPTPP would open up public procurement markets, restricting the government’s ability to support local businesses that recognise trade unions or pay living wages,.
“It is patently clear that the CPTPP is not really about fair, free trade among the member countries. In fact, only a handful of the chapters deal directly on trade. Many of the chapters in the agreement are framed to benefit major corporations rather than the people,” it added.
As such, the MTUC said the government should not endorse the ratification of the CPTPP unless member countries relent on major provisions that would adversely affect the economy and the livelihood as well as well-being of workers in the country.
“Political spats between the previous and present governments should
not negate the facts and truth of the heavy price Malaysians will pay if
Putrajaya agrees to endorse the ratification of the CPTPP based on a
decision taken by the previous Cabinet that was never cast in stone to
begin with,” said the umbrella body. - Edge Markets, 8/8/2020
Azmin maintains PH govt never agreed to reject CPTPP ratification
KUALA LUMPUR: International Trade and Industry Senior Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali maintained that the former Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had never agreed to reject the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Azmin was involved in a verbal exchange with Lim Guan Eng in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday over the issue when he said the PH government Cabinet had on Sept 5, 2018, agreed to ratify the CPTTP albeit without imposing a time limit on it.
Lim, who was Finance Minister during the PH administration, had rejected his claim, saying that the PH Cabinet had not agreed to the ratification.
In a statement today, Azmin said Lim's line of questioning on the CPTTP issue during the session was "political in nature and irresponsible."
Azmin stressed that his answer was based on the Cabinet's decision on Sept 5, 2018, in which the PH administration had agreed to the ratification without setting a timeframe.
"Several follow-up discussions concerning the CPTTP at Cabinet-level took place throughout 2019 and early 2020, with the aim of evaluating Malaysia's readiness to complete the domestic processes, especially on finalising amendments to legislation in order to ratify the CPTTP.
"The Pakatan Harapan Cabinet never made the decision to reject the CPTTP, as claimed by Lim.
"As such, Lim's statement is confusing and made with ill-intent in order to twist the facts. This should not have come from someone who held a key portfolio in the Pakatan Harapan Cabinet at the time," he said.
Azmin said he was leaving it to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker to decide on the appropriate action.
Malaysia is among four countries including Brunei, Chile, and Peru which have yet to ratify the CPTPP, which comprises 11 countries.
Countries which have ratified the agreement are Australia, Japan, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand and Mexico.
Azmin had yesterday said that the CPTPP would open up new markets
with preferred treatment for Malaysia in three countries, namely Canada,
Mexico and Peru. - NST, 4/8/2020
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