Photo below, from left: IDEAS' CEO Wan Saiful Wan Jan, US Trade Representative
Ambassador Michael Froman, IDEAS Council Member Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid, and Head of
Economics and Capital Markets at the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Nurhisham
Hussein.
CIMB Asean Research Institute chairman Tan Sri Munir
Majid (pic) said the country could not rely on either the US-led Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP),
perceived as a China-dominated trade pact.
He pointed out that Malaysia needed to achieve a balance
and not be “overwhelmingly dependent on one country”, and therefore, membership
of one does not exclude membership in the other nor less focus on the Asean
Economic Community, which would be “realised” at the end of the year....
However, Munir said accession to the TPP, considered as a
“gold-standard” trade agreement of the 21st Century, would make Malaysia more
transparent, as the pact covered investment and trade in goods and services, as
well as competition policies, the environment, intellectual property rights,
investment rules, labour standards and the role of state-owned enterprises
(SOEs).
“The TPP or anything else that can bring more
transparency is a good thing,” he said.
But public perception of the pact remains negative, with
the forum disrupted by two protestors from a patient-advocacy group, who
unfurled a banner protesting against the perceived threat that the pact would
bring to medicine costs....
About the anti-intellectual property rights (IPR) activists, maybe they are from the same activist group/s who attended our workshop discussion at the ASEAN People's Forum last month in KL. I already explained in that discussion that medicines IPR apply only
to newly-invented, patented medicines, and not to old, off-patent, generic
medicines. There are so many of the latter already, useful, disease-killer, cheaper medicines. Besides, out of the 20-years patent life of newly-invented medicines,
the commercial life is only about 8-10 years as the first 10-12 years of the drug molecule is spent on various clinical trials (with animals, then with mildly
sick people, then with seriously sick people, etc., involving thousands of
patients in various continents.).
Even if the drug molecule has produced good results in
the first 2-3 clinical trials, if it fails in the 4th or last trials, then
further molecule research is discontinued, no new medicine despite all the huge
spending and time consumed.
The Philippines I think, is not invited yet by the US to the proposed TPP, The PH has many pretensions in public policies at the moment -- like a protectionist constitution that disallows foreign investments and competition in many sectors and pampers only local businessmen, absence of a competition law, local governments that can challenge, even over-ride certain policies of the national government, etc. Examples of the latter are (a) dishonor of the mining permit of a huge Tampakan gold mining in Davao by the provincial government, despite huge infrastructure investments by the company and getting approval from various national government agencies, and (b) Manila City government disallowing cargo/container trucks from getting or delivering containers at the international port of Manila.
A country or economy can leapfrog these trade alliances via unilateral liberalization in trade (goods and services) and investments. It automatically creates good will to all other countries, and gives its local consumers and producers huge freedom where to buy and sell, at competitive prices and good qualities.
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See also:
Free Trade 43: On PH-Germany or PH-EU FTA, February 16, 2015
Free Trade 44: The Gravity Model, March 06, 2015
Free Trade 45: Protectionism in Services, Peering at the ASEAN, March 12, 2015 \
Free Trade 46: Debate on TPPA and Liberalization in Malaysia, March 31, 2015
AEC 11: Trade and Economic Development is Social Development, April 25, 2015
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