SINGAPORE, Nov 15 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today Malaysia will thoroughly evaluate the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) before acceding to pre-empt possible misgivings from Malaysians.
The prime minister told the press at the sidelines of the 33rd Asean Summit that the country’s population has diverse views on such complex matters, which he said must also be considered.
“We can’t just accept some things that sound reasonable for other countries, but may not be reasonable for many people in our country.
“We want to avoid conflicts in our country, by acceding to foreign ideas,” Dr Mahathir added.
State news agency Bernama cited a source earlier today as saying that Malaysia will not sign the China-backed trade deal if it is not fair to the country.
Yesterday, Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah broached the topic of advanced economies’ refusal to cut tariffs against Malaysia at the 2nd RCEP Summit.
The RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between the 10 Asean members and the six Asia-Pacific states with which they have existing free trade agreements: Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
When realised, RCEP would represent half of the global population and over 40 per cent of global trade.
