KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — The contentious Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will be part of the agenda in the meeting between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak during the former’s three-day visit here, International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Mustapa Mohamed said today.
But Mustapa dismissed suggestions that Obama’s weekend visit is meant to pressure Malaysia into signing the free trade agreement, which critics have claimed would benefit the world superpower.
“It is hard to speculate… the TPPA is definitely to be discussed but the visit is not only about the TPPA,” Mustapha told a media briefing this afternoon.
The minister, who is one of the Najib administration’s more senior leaders, added that the meeting could present Najib with a platform to address some of the sensitive issues faced by Malaysia in the TPPA talks.
“I am sure that Najib would want to discuss some of the challenges... it’s definitely going to be a big agenda but it is also a part of a bigger agenda”.
Mustapa had previously claimed that Obama’s visit, his first to Malaysia, was not to expedite the TPPA agreement.
Addressing Parliament during its September sitting last year, the minister said the Malaysian government would not succumb to any pressure from the US and would only sign the agreement on its own terms.
Reiterating the point, Mustapa said Putrajaya remains firm on key issues including intellectual property rights, protection of the Bumiputera economic agenda and state-owned enterprises, delicate subjects that have slowed negotiations.
“What matters is our national interest. If the cost benefit analysis shows that we can benefit from this then we will go ahead. If not, no.”
Earlier today, PKR leaders, weighing in on Obama’s decision not to meet with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, said they should not have had to request for a meeting with the US president, given the circumstances surrounding the US’ push for the TPPA.
PKR’s outgoing strategic director claimed that he had, during a meeting with an official from the US Department of State, expressed in the “strongest terms that the US credibility in common Malaysians will plunge” if the controversial trade pact is made an overwhelming priority.
“At the rate things are going, obviously more and more Malaysians feel that the interest of the TPPA on the part of the Obama administration will be seen by the public to override any other democratic principles by Malaysia,” he said.
It was reported last week that Obama has no plans to meet with Anwar, despite Washington’s concerns that the opposition leader’s ongoing Sodomy II case is part of a string of politically motivated charges to take him out of Malaysian politics.
