TPPA: Mustapa To Be Held Responsible

A Kadir Jasin

سْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

I AM no fan of the United States of America, but I have great respect for International Trade and Industry Minister, (Datuk Seri) Mustapa Mohamed.

My last trip to the US, the land of hope and opportunity, where poverty rate in 2014 was 14.8 percent and 46.7 million people lived below poverty, was in 2002.

Two of my children attended university there and in 2002, when visiting one of them, I was held incommunicado at the Des Moines International Airport, Iowa, for almost four hours because my name is “Bin Jasin” and I bought my ticket cash. I was released only when the local FBI Station Chief confirmed that I was not on the US terrorist list.

Mustapa is a friend. He was a scholar when I first came to know him back in the 1980’s. He had just been appointed political secretary to then Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin.

He is one of the few “clean” politicians that I have had the good fortune of knowing in my 46-year career as a journalist. He is a committeeman, straight as an arrow and totally loyal to the boss.

Many may not know that back when he was serving Daim, he played an important role as a backroom operator in helping to expand the Bumiputera business community.

But that brilliant civil record is about to be put to the ultimate test as and when the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership Agreement (TPPA) comes into force. The agreement had been agreed upon last month but needs ratification of member countries. We have been promised that the agreement would be tabled for debate in the Parliament before we ratify it.

Mustapa (sixth from left) is our chief TPPA negotiator

Mustapa is our chief negotiator in the controversial and widely opposed agreement. If we fail to benefit tangibly from it or, worse still, if we lose, Mustapa has to bear the blame.

I will be the first to condemn him.

I don’t care much about the stance of Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Mappadulung Daeng Mattimung Karaeng Sanrobone) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak on the agreement.

His fascination with the US and his closeness to his golf buddy, President Barrack Obama, might have dulled his sensitivity to interest of the country. Also, he may not know a lot about TPPA.

Mohd Najib Golfing with Obama during last year's big floods

US the Biggest Winner

Parallel to the TPPA is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which the US has been negotiating with European Union since 2013.

These two transoceanic agreements would literally make the US the centre of the global, not just in trade but also in territorial sovereignty and defence.

Let us hope that Mustapa is telling us the truth and his assurances are well founded.

For now, the biggest and surest winner is the US. TPPA is the US answer to its dwindling position as an economic superpower. The US is under threat of losing its position as the world’s largest economy to China.

This is happening at the time when its military hegemony is being challenged by China and Russia. Some statistics have suggested that the US had already lost its economic dominance to China.

The TPPA, without China as a signatory, would once again bolster its dominance and help keep China at bay, at least temporarily.

What is not often known or taken cognizant of is the fact that the US is also the largest country territorially. The US landmass may not be the biggest in the world, but the Law of the Sea Conference gave the US a vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Today, the US maintains sovereign rights over more marine areas than any other country in the world. Its underwater holdings totalled 4.69 million sq miles. Its closest rival, France has 3.93 million sq miles, followed by Australia 3.5 million sq miles, Russia 2.97 sq miles, UK 2.62 sq miles and New Zealand 2.59 sq miles.

The TPPA will also bolter the US industries. Many US industries are either dying or are undergoing massive structural changes. Pharmaceutical is among them. With ageing population and the growing consumers preference for biology-based medicines, the chemistry-based US pharmaceutical industry is losing its domestic market.

So one way of ensuring survival is to force the developing countries to ban generic medicines and produce patented ones. We may end up paying hefty royalties for their patents while their pharmaceutical giants gain unlimited access to our treasure trove of herbal plants and organisms.

Even the so-called concessions and exclusions supposedly given to the developing member countries are not a guarantee. They could be subjected to re-interpretation at the point of implementation.

Also it would be dangerous for us to side with the US and its allies in an agreement that does not include China. The US is not our largest trading partner. It comes fourth after Singapore, China and Japan.

Thus it serves us well be mindful of the promises Mustapa makes because even Americans, including Nobel Prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz, had warned about TPPA’s pitfalls for the developing countries. Read Here.

Wallahuakkam.