KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — The controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will likely end if Donald Trump become the next US president and the world superpower opts to withdraw from the trade bloc, International and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said today.
Mustapa told the Dewan Rakyat this evening that the trade deal would be ineffective without the US participation as it is the world’s biggest economy.
“We don’t want to make a prediction but if Congress doesn’t agree with the TPPA, then TPPA will be buried because section 30 of the TPPA needs the participation of the US because they are the world’s largest economy, with 20 per cent of the global economy.
“So when we negotiate TPPA without the US, then it’ll be less effective and have less meaning,” he said.
The minister added that Malaysia will not agree to the TPPA if the US also seeks to push through any amendment.
“If there are any amendments, we will not, under any circumstances, accept it,” he said.
Trump has made public his opposition to the TPPA.
The Republican candidate for the US presidential elections reportedly called the TPP the “biggest betrayal” of Americans, claiming the deal will result in job losses to his countrymen from massive work outsourcing.
Twelve countries, namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US, Vietnam and Malaysia, concluded the TPP negotiations in Atlanta on October 5 last year.
The TPP is a free trade agreement that has been negotiated by the US, Malaysia and 10 other nations as part of the larger Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership since 2010.
