KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 24, 2013): The government has not made much progress in negotiations of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) due to the many outstanding issues that needs to be ironed out.

Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapha Mohamad told the Dewan Rakyat that the latest negotiations which ended on Sept 21 in Washington could not resolve the issues that were raised during the previous negotiations in Brunei.

Among the issues include government procurement, investors state dispute settlement, environmental issues, and intellectual property rights.

"The next meeting will be held in Bali next month so we will find ways to solve the outstanding issues," said Mustapha in reply to Datuk Marcus Mojigoh (BN-Putatan) who asked if the government is desperate to sign the TPPA and the framework by the ministry to safeguard the interests of national and industry players.

Mustapha stressed that national interest is of the utmost importance and no deals will be inked if it jeopardises national interest.

"We will not bow to others. We will sign it on our own terms. This is the government's stand to ensure national sovereignty is not compromised," he said.

Mustapha also urged the public not to hold demonstrations when US President Barack Obama visits next month as nothing has been concluded yet.

He said the government will not sign the TPPA if it compromised the country's sovereignty or Bumiputera rights.

To another supplementary question by Siti Zailah Mohd Yusof (PAS-Rantau Panjang), Mustapha said there are 21 working teams on the TPPA comprising of experts in various fields from ministries and agencies.

He also said the TPPA comes under his purview and he overseas internal and domestic investment, and trade policies.

"The TPPA is my responsibility, but there are those who are tasked with the negotiations based on the mandate given by the Cabinet. These are experienced people from the relevant ministries," he said.

By thesundaily.my

The post No progress on TPPA says Mustapha appeared first on Asean Investment | Marc Djandji Blog.