We urge your goodself to send letters to the Prime Minister and the Minister of International Trade raising your concerns and protesting the continuing of the negotiations of the US-Malaysia FTA by 3rd SEPTEMBER 2008.
YAB Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Prime Minister of Malaysia
Pejabat Perdana Menteri,
Blok Utama, Bangunan Perdana Putra,
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan,
62502 Putrajaya
No Faks: 03-8888 3444
YB Tan Sri Dato’ Muhyiddin Mohd. Yassin
Minister of International Trade and Industry,
Kementerian Perdagangan Antarabangsa & Industri
Tingkat 14, Blok 10
Kompleks Pejabat Kerajaan, Jalan Duta,
50622 Kuala Lumpur
No Faks: 03-6201 2301
Re: Malaysia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement threatens spirit of Merdeka
At this time when we are celebrating Merdeka, we are still very concerned about the Malaysia-U.S. free trade agreement (MUFTA) and its possible implications on Malaysia.
We understand that the negotiations are still continuing. Why is Malaysia still negotiating when the U.S. Trade Representative has no fast track negotiating authority anymore? Malaysia is the only country still negotiating an FTA with the U.S. during this lame duck presidency period when there is no fast track authority.
In particular, we have raised serious concerns about the following issues, concerns which have not yet been addressed by the government:
- Stronger intellectual property protection than the World Trade Organization requires is likely to increase medicine prices in Malaysia. At a time of high inflation and reducing government revenue, neither Malaysian consumers nor the Malaysian government will be able to afford these high prices. If Malaysia is going to agree to this TRIPS-plus intellectual property protection, will the Malaysian government at least insist it receives the less TRIPS-plus provisions regarding medicines that the U.S. allowed Peru, Panama and Colombia to have in their U.S. FTAs when the Democrats insisted on their renegotiation in May 2007?
- The USA usually insists on a broad definition of investment, a strong expropriation provision and investor-to-state dispute settlement. Based on complaints and even litigation under these provisions in other U.S. FTAs, the combination of these provisions could result in severe restrictions on the Government’s ability to regulate U.S. companies in Malaysia.
- The USA usually insists on a “negative list” for services liberalisation where all services are open to U.S. competition unless they are carved out in advance. Since Malaysia, like most countries, is unable to measure the service industry accurately, it does not have the information necessary to know which industries it needs to protect from unfair foreign competition under a negative list system. Furthermore, this would mean that all future service sectors are automatically open to U.S. companies, with far-reaching consequences.
Giving in to the U.S. demands above would compromise our hard earned freedom to shape our own economy and society.
We demand that the government is accountable to its *rakyat*. Our concerns which have been repeatedly raised have still not been answered, so we insist that the Minister for International Trade and Industry meets us before deciding to make further concessions in the negotiations.
Yours sincerely
—————
If you wish to know more about Free Trade Agreement, please visit :
