All You Need To Know About The TPPA And How It Would Affect Malaysians

TPP is a free trade agreement between 12 countries, spearheaded by American president Barack Obama.

According to the Office of the United States Trades Representative, this free trade agreement that was first introduced in 2006 is aimed to increase the production of American exports, increase job opportunities for Americans, thus boosting the American economy.

The 12 participating countries in negotiations about the TPPA are:

- United States
- Singapore
- Brunei
- Chile
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Peru
- Malaysia
- Vietnam
- Mexico
- Canada
- Japan

After a lengthy discussion period of over five years, the final leg of the trade agreement was concluded on 5 October, yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia.

While the focus has been from the start on the benefits that the Americans stand to gain from this trade, little light has been shed on how this trade affects the rest of the participating countries, as the talks, documents and issues discussed about the agreement have not been revealed to the public.

On one end, there are the developed, economically excelling, first-world nations; United States, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Japan and on the other, are nations that are classified as developing countries, third-world countries that are still struggling in terms of economical growth; Malaysia, Brunei, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Mexico.

What TPP aims to achieve is applying a vast number of free trade laws, giving way to giant nations like America to penetrate into the local industries of these developing countries, thus competing with local goods and services.

The question that is posed here is; would these developing countries be able to sustain local industries with the sudden heavy competition and trade laws that no longer protect them?

Listed below are some of the controversial policies that will be implemented in all countries that sign up for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, based on a report by an online magazine on economics and politics, Foreign Policy:

Intellectual property (IP) is basically defined as all tangible and intangible ideas, thoughts, or invention by humans. Copyrights, trademark and patents fall under intellectual property.

Another major aspect of the TPP agreement would be strengthening the existing laws surrounding IP, including cyber laws, trademark counterfeiting and copyright policies that would greatly affect the way we use the internet.

If the Malaysian government agrees to this, access to information on any copyrighted material might not be so easily and freely available as it is now.

That would mean paying for most materials that we are currently just downloading for free; movies, music, research papers and any piece of information that is copyrighted, trademarked or patented.

It is common knowledge that first world nations, over the years, have developed the habit of setting up multinational corporations in developing countries due to the cheaper labor laws there.

However, TPP's seeks to further decrease the costs of setting up these companies in these developing countries.

Cutting up the already low costs of setting up multinational corporations, due to exchange rates and economical differences may affect the locals working in those companies.

Budding local industries and companies may suffer due to the heavy competition from well developed countries' products and services, with TPP's motion to do away with protective trade policies that serve to secure domestic traders' position in the local markets.

Basically, in terms of economy, TPP, if implemented in developing countries like Malaysia, might directly affect local businesses, including government-linked companies (GLCs) due the agreement's aim of wanting to compete with local traders, on the same platform and under the same laws.

With the prices of medicine hiking up steadily over the years, Malaysians for the past decade, have been encouraged to start consuming generic medicine under the Generic Medicine Policy (GMP) resulting in healthcare organisations actively introducing the usage of generic medicine.

Generic medicine would be defined as drugs marketed under no particular brand but share the similar chemical component as any 'original/branded' drugs and comply with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

However, after much disagreement from other participating countries, America agreed with the undisclosed, minimum number of years instead.

The availability of generic medicine help drugs reach across a wider pool of people in both developing and poverty-stricken countries but if Malaysia were to sign the TPP agreement, we would have to deal with purchasing expensive medicine under the stringent laws of TPP.

That would affect a great number of people in developing countries and might even be the death of many that cannot afford the rising costs of medicine for serious illnesses such as HIV, AIDS, and cancer.