Malaysian Civil Society to TPP Negotiators
Open letter to negotiators of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement
By Malaysian Civil Society
Earlier this year, several Malaysian organizations joined many others from around the world in writing to their governments to call for increased transparency in the negotiations of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). This is because a more transparent TPPA process would provide some basic safeguards against errors and identify risks that may not be apparent to negotiators and the government. It could also help convince people that a TPPA really will replace the past trade pact models that benefited and privileged special interests and multinational firms.
The organizations gave several suggestions that the TPPA negotiating parties could take in this regard.
Regrettably, the TPPA parties have rejected these demands and appear to be insisting on a level of secrecy that reverses recent initiatives to facilitate informed, open and democratic debate by releasing draft negotiating texts of free trade and investment agreements. We cite, in particular, the examples of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, the Anti- Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the Doha round negotiations at the WTO.