SINGAPORE, Dec 11 — Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed has urged the Malaysian public not to base their assessment of the on-going Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement negotiations on Wikileaks.

“The consultations that the Government is undertaking with various stakeholders should be the source of reference on Malaysia’s stand rather than the reported Wikileaks disclosure,” he said in a statement here today following his attendance at the TPP Ministerial Meeting here on December 7-10.

Mustapa (picture) also reiterated that after the conclusion of the TPP negotiations, the text will be presented to Parliament for debate.

He said the aim of the ministerial meeting was to take stock of the progress made in the negotiations since the Bali Leaders Meeting in October 2013 and to provide guidance on appropriate compromises to enable negotiators to overcome the remaining outstanding issues in the various chapters.

He said leaders in Bali decided to conclude the TPP negotiations by year-end, but this has been proven to be impossible to achieve, and while there has been progress, wide gaps still remain in many of the chapters that would require further negotiations.

On state-owned enterprises, environment, intellectual property rights (IPR) and market access, the minister said many issues are still outstanding and negotiators have been tasked to explore solutions.

He said Malaysia continued to negotiate based on the mandate given by the Cabinet.

“In Singapore, Malaysia had highlighted our specific concerns and sensitivities in the areas of government procurement, state-owned enterprises, Bumiputera issues, IPR, environment and ISDS (investor-state dispute settlement) as well as the need for flexibilities including carve-outs, transition periods and country-specific commitments,” he said.

Mustapa said Malaysia continues to work with other TPP members on the details of these flexibilities.

In the market access negotiations, he said, there has been some improvement in the offers of TPP members but Malaysia is continuing to seek a better package.

The minister said Malaysia will continue with the domestic process of engagement and consultations with the Parliamentary Caucus, civil society and other stakeholders to share with them the government’s stand on various issues.

Mustapa said there is a lot more work to be done by negotiators before negotiations can be finalised.

“The negotiators are currently working on the timetable for future work in relation to the TPP negotiations,” he added.

TPP member countries comprise Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the United States, Singapore, Japan and Vietnam. — Bernama