KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — Putrajaya’s pro-Bumiputera policies will not be affected in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) as it is a “sovereign decision”, United States Trade Representative Michael Froman said today.

Froman said the US recognises that each country in the agreement has its own way of dealing poverty and growth, amid fears by pro-Malay groups that the TPPA will erode the majority community’s privilege.

“Minister Mustapa and Prime Minister Najib has been very clear from the start on TPPA, how important the Bumiputera policy is to Malaysia,” Froman said today, referring to International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, and Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“And our view is, it is really the sovereign decision of Malaysia what direction they take the Bumiputera policy in the future,” he added.

Speaking at a forum organised by think-tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), Froman said the US feels that increasing trade and investment is the most powerful tool in alleviating poverty.

Speaking to reporters after the forum, Ideas chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan explained that it is the official line of Putrajaya that all countries involved in TPPA respect Malaysia’s decision to keep its pro-Bumiputera policies.

Despite that, Wan Saiful said that other countries require that Putrajaya’s discretionary powers in implementing the policies must be made clear and consistent.

“The problem is in Malaysia we cannot define where the pro-Bumiputera policies start and end,” said Wan Saiful, warning that the decisions should not be arbitrary.

“The rule has to be clear, it has to be put on paper, and we have to abide by the rule. It is forcing us to think about how to best implement the Bumiputera policies.”

In the forum, Nurhisham Hussein, the head of Economics and Capital Markets Department in the Employees Provident Fund also agreed that there is a need to revamp, rethink and review the current pro-Bumiputera policies.

“We need a real rethink about how we approach social integration, poverty, inequality across a whole range of different measures. It is an ongoing discussion

“The reality is there is imbalance in the Malaysian community,” said Nurhisham.

In addition, Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid  of the CIMB Asean Research Institute commented that the New Economic Policy should return to its “purer form” to uplift the society “regardless of race”.

The TPPA is a free trade agreement that has been negotiated by the US, Malaysia and nine other nations as part of the larger Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership since 2010.