TWN
Info Service on Free Trade Agreements
09 May 2006
We are pleased to share with you some developments in the FTA campaign,
since our last event held on 25 March in KL, i.e. the Forum on the
US-Malaysia FTA: Implications for Malaysian Society.
We hope that www.ftamalaysia.org is useful for disseminating information
that we have been monitoring. We encourage all of you to share with
us your own information, too.
The first round of formal negotiations will be held on 12-16 June
in Malaysia, but the venue is not announced yet.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Chee Yoke Ling
Third World Network
2-1, Jalan 31/70A,
Desa Sri Hartamas,
50480, Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 03-2300 2585
Fax: 03-2300 2595
Email: twnkl@po.jaring.my
FTA INFORMATION UPDATE NO. 1 FROM THIRD WORLD NETWORK
www.ftamalaysia.org
4 May 2006
The first round of formal negotiations will be held on 12-16 June
in Malaysia, but the venue is not announced yet.
1. Parliament debate
Concerns over the rushed timetable (the US wants to complete negotiations
by early 2007) and the lack of public knowledge and awareness over
the serious implications of the FTA have led to discussion during
the Parliamentary Session that just ended. The big launch of the 9th
Malaysia Plan was followed by a month of debate in the Dewan Rakyat
Opposition MP YB Lim Kit Siang in his opening statement rasied some
fundamental issues and questions on the FTA with the US, and also
questioned the Japan-Malaysia Economic Partnership Agreement (JMEPA)
which had been signed in December 2005 with no parliamentary knowledge.
All these agreements may require Malaysian laws to be changed and
once the legally binding agreements enter into force, our MPs will
have no choice but to agree to the changes in our laws. Another opposition
MP from PAS also raised the FTA issue and proposed an emergency motion
to discuss the US FTA. This was rejected. Lim Kit Siang called for
a parliamentary pro! cess with public participation.
However, it was heartening to note the response from Second Finance
Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop during the wrapping up of the
9 Malaysia Plan debate. In response to questions from YB Lim Kit Siang,
Tan Sri Nor Mohamed assured Parliament that Malaysia will not be pressured
by a US timetable. He agreed that a detailed cost-benefit analysis
(including the long term inpact) is required before signing any agreement.
He also said that he will suggest to the Cabinet to support the setting
up of a Parliamentary Select Committee on FTAs, a proposal made by
YB Lim. The Minister remarked that he would not want future generations
to curse the FTA, and that his own ministry is conducting a cost-benefit
anaysis.
In her response in parliament a few days later, Minister of International
Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said that she supported
the assurance given by Tan Sri Nor Mohamed that Malaysia was not bound
by the US timetable and declared Malaysia would not sign any FTA agreement
if it is not in the interest of the country. She however did not support
Tan Sri Nor Mohamed’s suggestion to bring up the proposal for a Parliamentary
Select Committee on FTAs to the Cabinet, rejecting the need for such
a Committee.
But it was very worrying that in the parliamentary exchange between
Datuk Seri Rafidah and YB Lim, she did not seem to know about some
important commitments that Malaysia had made in the JMEPA when quizzed
by YB Lim.
For information on the parliamentary discussions see:
http://blog.limkitsiang.com/?p=45 (response from Tan Sri Mohamed Nor
Yakcop)
http://blog.limkitsiang.com/?p=462 (excerpts from the Hansard, the
official report of parliamentary debates are available on this page).
http://blog.limkitsiang.com/?p=467 (response from Datuk Paduka Rafidah
Aziz).
From the 2 discussions in Parliament and from the responses from some
ministries which TWN and CAP have spoken with, there appears to be
no comprehensive cost-benefit analysis done. Yet at the launch of
the Malaysia-US FTA negotiations in Washington DC on 8 March, Datuk
Seri Rafidah announced that MITI had done its arithmetic, What that
is remains to be seen.
But it is very disturbing that the Government seems willing to enter
into negotiations with the US (which has done its detailed homework
on what it wants from Malaysia) with the approach that negotiations
will proceed and then the final text of thre agreement will be considered
and we will then decide whether to sign or not. Two questions arise:
first, without our own clear cost-benefit analysis that involves the
participation of civil society and local industries, how can the Government
even negotiate? Secondly, the further down the line into the negotiations,
the harder it will be for Malaysia to walk away and we can expect
growing pressure from the US should that occur.
2. Activities of some NGOs and MOPI
TWN, CAP and SAM have continued to send letters or meet with some
government officials and members of parliament both from the Barisan
Nasional backbenchers and opposition. There was considerable interest
shown by those we spoke to, and we were struck again and again by
the fact that MPs generally have so little or no information about
the numerous FTAs being negotiated.
The Malaysian Organisation of Pharmaceutical Industries (MOPI) which
comprise of Malaysian generic drugs companies and retailers have been
very active in voicing their opposition to intellectual property protection
provisions that US FTAs always contain – these are well beyond the
requirements of the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade-related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and will have very
negative impact on our local generics industry. The generic drugs
industry manufacture much cheaper versions of the patented medicines,
enabling government hospitals and clinics to provide very cheap medicines.
Some price comparisons in private pharmacies show price differences
that can be as high as 60 to 80% between patented medicines and their
generic versions.
MOPI has been in discussions with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry
of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to convey their concerns over
the future of the local generic industry and the availability of affordable
medicines for malaysian consumers,
The Positive Malaysian Treatment Access and Advocacy Group (MTAAG+)
is the other active group. Comprising persons living with HIV and
supporting individuals and NGOs, MTAAG+ has sent a letter to the Prime
Minsiter and other relevant Ministers and are mobilising the positive
community to be informed of FTA issues, especially those relating
to intellectual property and access to affordable medicines. For this
community, generic drugs for treating AIDS is a matter of life and
death, and their position is that health and life are “non-negotiable”.
An active group promoting ICT called the Free and Open Source Society
(FOSS) have also joined the campaign, and they have produced a briefing
on how the intellectual property provisions in US FTAs on patents
and copyrights can undermine access to information, ICT development
and cost the country a lot more. This briefing is available on www.ftamalaysia.org
MOPI, MTAAG, FOSS and CAP also participated in a dialogue convened
by the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs on intellectual
property rights (including a session on the US FTA) on 20 April.
3. Local media
On the Malaysian media side, the SUN has provided some coverage of
the concerns and opposition to the US FTA that emerged from the 25
March Forum, Bernama has reported some of the statements made by Tan
Sri Mohamed Nor Yacob and Datuk Seri Rafidah. The NST carried an opinion
piece by MIER which also expressed some concerns and caution.
