PUTRAJAYA, Oct 7 — The federal government is looking at presenting its case for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement to Parliament in January next year, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said today.

He said they still need to confirm the exact date that the official TPP text will be released to the public, but noted that it will likely only be tabled in Parliament for debate and a vote next year.

Mustapa explained that the text will likely be released by the end of this month, after which all 12 of the TPP member countries will have 60 days for public consultation before they will need to decide whether or not they will sign on with the trade pact.

“In this case it is in January, but of course this depends on the (Dewan Rakyat) Speaker. Perhaps we will have a special session of Parliament,” Mustapa said at a news conference here.

It was announced late Monday that negotiators from the 12 prospective TPP partners have agreed to the terms of the trade pact and will now proceed to the next step of the process, which is to get their respective countries to buy into the deal.

Once the TPP text is released to the public, the governments of the 12 countries will have 60 days to go through their own domestic processes to determine whether or not to go ahead with the agreement.

Even if they sign the agreement, however, each country will have two years to ratify the TPP, failing which they will not be a party to the multi-lateral trade deal.

Mustapa today acknowledged that his ministry is faced with the uphill task of convincing the public that the TPP will work in Malaysia’s favour, especially with “a lot of misinformation” spread over the years regarding the complex and multi-faceted agreement.

He added that the government has had trouble convincing even its own backbenchers in Parliament as to the merits of the TPP.

“In the beginning, even BN (Barisan Nasional) MPs found difficulty in accepting why we are in this, but towards the end I think they have a better understanding. I’m convinced they are more supportive of the TPP now than they were in the beginning.

“People are very emotional. It’s very political, there’s a lot of misinformation. Those are some of the concerns. We have to be very simple in the approach (in public engagement) and it has to be as extensive as possible,” Mustapa said.