Kuala Lumpur, 26 January 2018 – The government must be commended for its commitment to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Once we sign it in March, we should immediately start work to bring back into force the 20 suspended provisions so that the real benefits of such a major trade deal can be fully realised.

Earlier this week, on 23 January 2018, 11 out of the original 12 TPP countires announced that they will go ahead and sign a deal without the United States. The new pact, called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), contains many of the original ideas of the TPP, but suspended 20 provisions related to trade facilitation, investment, services, public procurement, intellectual property rights (IPR), environment and transparency. Malaysia is one of the countries in the newly minted CPTPP.

IDEAS Chairman Tan Sri Datuk Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta. Maria said, “Previously Malaysia made the right decision to join the original TPP and now we have made another right decision to join the CPTPP. This is positive step forward for our position in the global value chain. I applaud the leadership of Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak for staying committed to this agenda. Minister for International Trade and Industry Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed as well as MITI Secretary General Datuk Sri J Jayasiri and his team worked very hard to get the best deal for Malaysia and they all deserve to be commended.”

“The next step is for the CPTPP to be formally signed in Chile on 8 March 2018. Six parties must sign for it to enter into force in 2019 and I hope Malaysia will be one of the signatories, allowing our entrepeneurs to have access to a market with a population of 500 million people covering 14 percent of global GDP. I also hope that soon after the signing, we will take quick steps to bring back the suspended provisions so that the real benefits of such a big multilateral deal, and the much needed structural reforms we wanted to see from the original TPP, can be realised.”