TPPA negotiations: Why the secrecy?

An economist has reminded the government of the Korean tourist guides fiasco spinning from a 'secret' Free Trade Agreement with Korea.

KOTA KINABALU: The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will not harm Asia’s growing digital economies but surrendering total freedom is not always beneficial or socially desirable, said a local economist.

University Sabah Malaysia associate professor James Alin cited the contentious decision by the Tourism Minister last year to allow Korean tour guides in Sabah.

Former federal minister Ng Yen Yen had, in a bid to please the Embassy of Korea, granted Korean citizens the right to be employed as tourist guides in Sabah.

The decision caused an uproar in Sabah.

Alin said such a contentious decision was possible partly because Malaysia had a free trade agreement (FTA) with Korea even though the Sabah Tourist Guide Association objected to the move.

“The association was not objecting to the idea of free trade, what they really wanted was for the ministry to make sure that local guides will be given time and funds to study Korean so that Sabah will not be employing those Korean citizens forever.

“That counter proposal (by the Sabah Tourist Guide Association) was rejected outright by the Ng Yen Yen.

“So what can we learn from this policy blunder?

“Firstly, Korean-Malaysia FTA was also negotiated in secret. Some details were made available long after the signing,” he said.

Alin believes that this was because the negotiators of the Korea-Malaysia FTA were mostly from federal agencies who made decisions that had a negative effect on Sabah’s job market.

“The business community in Sabah are all for free trade because they know a level playing field will create more business opportunities hence more jobs.

“But they also worry if the government is willing to pay the adjustment costs to those vulnerable people.

“The implications of FTA are impartial. The free market has no feeling.

“It is incumbent upon the elected government to provide a social cushion or safety to those severely affected people.

“What Najib’s administration can do now is not to come up with another glib excuse as to why they remain secretive about what has been negotiated,” he said.

“If government is not being transparent with the details, the public will be fed with a lot of nonsense arguments, mainly from some non-governmental organisations with self-interests,” he said alluding to the numerous protests signalling people’s discontent over the TPPA’s ambiguity and the secrecy of the negotiations.

TPPA good for country

The TPPA is a free trade initiative involving 12 countries with the aim of liberalising the economy in the Asia Pacific region.

It also seeks, among others, to enhance trade and investment among the member countries and encourage innovation and economic development.

On personal note, Alin believes the TPPA will be good for the country.

“When multinational corporations can freely enter our market they will bring in FDI, build more factories and most likely open research and development labs. These would provide employment.

Alin said with the TPPA in place, politically-connected business operations would no longer be able to swindle billions of ringgits of taxpayers’ money through negotiated contracts.

He stressed that free trade and competition were consumer-friendly.

“Blindly objecting to free trade will not be helpful,” he added.

Alin also argued against the claim that the government would lose its powers in dispute settlements, citing the fact that Malaysia already has many FTAs which are similar to the TPPA and has not affected its influence.

“In fact the opposite is true. Free trade allows governments, both federal and state, to assume more responsibilities because of additional revenues generated from more exports and FDI,” he said.

He also brushed off the argument that signing the agreement would be selling out national sovereignty.

“Look at free trade nations like Singapore, Hong Kong, in Europe etc, did the investors use dispute mechanism to interfere with the legislator decisions?

“Yes free trade will definitely affect the lousy bumiputera policy. I think you already know bumiputera policy brings many bad things.

“State-investors mechanism has no legitimacy politically to impose their values what more to influence domestic legislation,” he said.