The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Analysis

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is the biggest trade agreement in history, making up about 40 percent of the global economy with a projection of almost $30 trillion. Other than being the biggest trade agreement, TPPA is described as a secretive and multinational ‘free trade’ agreement lead by United States. The agreement is currently, be negotiated between 11 countries, which are Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Mexico, and Canada. The negotiation is reported to be in secret and the TPP governments have agreed to keep the secrecy until four years the deal has been signed, as claimed by Greenpeace (2015), the information about TPPA comes from leaked documents and detective works.
In Malaysia, we have our laws and policies. We have laws, which grant Malay and Bumiputera special rights and privileges as the indigenous people of the country. They are given specific quotas in certain aspect of economy to help them build their economy status. Once TPPA has been implemented, would these rules still be applicable and reasonable? Would these laws result in government paying billion dollars to said company? Malaysia will be bound hand and foot said Mahathir (2015), perhaps President Soekarno was right about neo-colonialism, as TPPA will snatch Malaysia’s capital control. This can be further prove by the leaked terms in TPPA by Greenpeace (2015) which suggests that multinational companies and major industries such as Big Pharma (Pharmaceutical company), operating in North America, South America and Asia will be granted broad powers to challenge sovereign nation’s Government regulations, rules, actions and court rulings before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United Nations. The system is called the “Investor-State Dispute Settlement” (ISDS) system.
According to Gurdil (2015), “the aim of TPPA is to secure a level playing field for all companies but the starting line is not on the same level for businesses from different parts of the world and of varying degrees of development”. Developed countries such as United States and Japan will definitely gain the most benefits by entering such treaty. Their corporations have strong injection of capitals, advanced technologies, hence producing more standardized and quality-wise products. Also, they have more authority in altering the safety and standard of production. The study from PwC (2015) said, “Once Malaysia signs the pact, it will no longer be able to impose restrictions on entities that wish to participate in supplying these goods and services”. The effects stated by a study from PwC can be similar illustrated in the past ASEAN agreement. According to Mahathir (2013), “Malaysia has agreed that cars with 40 percent local contents qualify as national and tax-free entry into ASEAN markets. However, cars from outside ASEAN can easily achieve forty percent local contents. This means the Japanese, Korean, Chinese and European cars can get ASEAN countries’ national status merely by being assembled in ASEAN countries together with batteries, tires and a few other components”. This shows that developed countries will have more authority and power to alter an agreement. Moreover, Proton is