Government Trade Policy Shift: What has Changed?
When I attended
the 15th Round of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)
negotiations in Auckland last December, it hit me that the campaign for access
to medicines and fair trade really doesn’t have much time left. The rumours at
that time were that negotiations would conclude in October 2013.
The TPPA, a US-led free trade agreement that has very little to do
with trade, is a beefed-up version of previous US free trade agreements (FTAs)
designed to maximise corporate power and profits, while ignoring and minimising
patient rights, worker rights, internet user rights, and environmental rights.
It is being negotiated between 11 countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile,
Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Viet Nam.
In 2007-2008
when the Barisan National-led Malaysian government was negotiating the
US-Malaysia FTA, there seemed to be no shortage of objections to TRIPS-plus and
other provisions in the TPPA that would negatively impact access to medicines,
farmer’s rights, and tobacco use in Malaysia. The then Agriculture Minister Tan
Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (now Deputy Prime Minister) said that the Government would not compromise on the livelihood of local
farmers, and excluded tobacco and rice from the ambit of the agreement.[1]
Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Rembau, Negeri
Sembilan and UMNO Youth Chief wrote in his blog that the US-Malaysia FTA was ‘a
serious test to our sovereignty’ and stringent patent protections in US demands
were a ‘real danger’, denying access to more affordable generic medicines[2]
for longer.
The
negotiations for the US-FTA broke down, with the Malaysian Cabinet having over
50 ‘red lines’ or matters that the Malaysian government simply would not
compromise.
Today, the
TPPA negotiations seem to be proceeding without so much as a squeak from
dissenting Barisan politicians. What has changed? The TPPA is a stronger trade
agreement, not weaker. Have farmers’ and patients’ rights become acceptable to
sacrifice for short-term economic gains? What (or who) has been the catalyst
for all this change?
Prime
Minister Najib Razak may just be it. On 29 and 30 May 2012, he received American
Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman, notorious free trade advocates, at a
meeting in Kuala Lumpur. Senator McCain later commented in a tweet that PM
Najib was ‘improving US-Malaysia relations.’[3]
In September 2012, the PM said that the
TPPA was a ‘promising pathway for free trade’.[4]
On 20 November 2012, he attended a TPPA meeting in Phnom Penh with President
Obama, PM Gillard, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, and other TPPA country leaders.[5]
It may very well be that PM Najib’s keenness for the TPPA and Malaysia-EU FTA
is being reflected throughout the party.
The only Barisan
politician who has spoken up, quite surprisingly, is the Minister of Health
Liow Tiong Lai, who said in an interview after the Malaysian AIDS Council forum
on the TPPA at the Bar Council on 4 August 2012, ‘We are against the patent
extension.’[6] (Patent
extensions are part and parcel of US free trade agreements, and they result in
delays of entry of more affordable generic medicines into markets.) Also
relevant is MP Khairy Jamaluddin’s response to me in regard to his 2008 blog
post on twitter today:
What may
have also changed is the level of tobacco industry interference in government
policy. During my 6-month tenure as a Research Officer in the Ministry of
Health from October 2010-March 2011, I noticed personally that Big Tobacco
companies had direct access to the Minister when even MOH officers did not have
access. This interference may be reflected in the decision not to raise tobacco
taxes last year. It may also be reflected in trade negotiators’ very strong
pro-tobacco stance in the TPPA, and their referring to statistics released by
the tobacco industry in Malaysia, statistics usually only known by the tobacco
industry themselves and tobacco control professionals. (Note: Tobacco industry
interference in policymaking is specifically prohibited in Article 5.3 of the
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control or FCTC, a Convention to which Malaysia
is a party)
The reason
I’ve written this article, really, is to implore Barisan politicians to speak
up, or at the very least, meet with the Malaysian Chief Negotiator J. Jayasiri
of MITI to express your concerns personally before it is too late.
Here is a short timeline
of notable events that have occurred in recent years on TPPA:
Date
|
Event
|
||
October 2010
|
Malaysia announces that it has joined the TPPA
negotiations
|
||
5-9 December 2011
|
Mini-round of negotiations held in Ritz-Carlton
Kuala Lumpur, health groups protest outside negotiation venue and Tan Sri
Mohd Zaman Khan, President of Malaysian AIDS Council hands petition to US
negotiators.
|
||
29-30 May 2012
|
PM Najib meets with pro-free trade American
senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman in Kuala Lumpur
|
||
2-10 July 2012
|
San Diego round of negotiations held, Malaysian
health coalition Joint Statement
handed out to US and Malaysian negotiators. Joint Statement endorsed by
Malaysian AIDS Council, MTAAG+ and National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NCSM)
|
||
4 August 2012
|
Public Forum on Medicines and the TPPA co-hosted
by Malaysian AIDS Council and Breast Cancer Welfare Association
|
||
6 August 2012
|
Minister of Health Liow Tiong Lai states that
MOH against patent extensions proposed by US in TPPA
|
||
September 2012
|
PM in Vladivostok for APEC meeting, comments
that TPPA ‘promising pathway for free trade’.
|
||
20 November 2012
|
PM in Cambodia, meets with TPPA country leaders
including President Obama and PM Gillard.
|
||
3-12 December 2012
|
15th Round of negotiations held in
Auckland, New Zealand. At Stakeholder Briefing, I (Fifa Rahman) asked US
Chief Negotiator Barbara Weisel: “We have been waiting 9 months for the new patent proposal that we
understood was to be forthcoming, if it is coming, when can we expect it? Or
will it be decided at the political level?” She answered that as it was a
controversial issue, they will take their time and wait for congressional
approval.
|
||
11 December 2012
|
My interview with Meera Sivasothy on BFM Radio
on the Auckland Round of Negotiations.
|
[1] Zulfakar, Mergawati. ‘Tobacco,
rice excluded in FTA negotiations with US’ (January 15, 2007) The Star Online http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/1/15/business/20070115145508&sec=business
Accessed 12 February 2013.
[2] Jamaluddin, Khairy. ‘FTA
must promote fair, not free trade’ (May 26, 2008) http://rembau.com.my/2008/05/fta-must-promote-fair-not-free-trade/
Accessed 12 February 2013
[3] New Straits Times ‘McCain:
Najib an impressive reformer.’ (June 6, 2012) http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/mccain-najib-an-impressive-reformer-1.91514
Accessed 12 February 2013
[4] Wong, Sai Wan. ‘PM:
Msia, US want Trans-Pacific Partnerships talks to be wrapped up by end 2013’ The Star Online (September 9, 2012) http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/9/9/nation/20120909150540&sec=nation
Accessed 12 February 2013
[5] ‘PMs visit abroad’
(November 20, 2012) Office of the Prime
Minister of Malaysia, Official Portal http://www.pmo.gov.my/?menu=visit&id=37328&page=1951&e=1&bln=all&thn=all
Accessed 12 February 2013.
[6] Walton, Zach. ‘Malaysia
Health Minister says TPP is no good.’ (August 9, 2012) WebPro News/Technology http://www.webpronews.com/malaysia-health-minister-says-tpp-is-no-good-2012-08
Accessed 12 February 2013.
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