KUALA LUMPUR: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), which is in the process of approval by each of the 12 negotiating countries, is a balanced deal that took into account everybody's benefit, says United States President Barack Obama.
Addressing the concerns by several quarters on the TPP, he said the documents were currently posted on websites where everyone can access and read every chapter before countries can ratify, subject to the approval or disapproval by each legislative or parliament of countries involved.
"The point that I am making is that, generally in this new global environment, things are changing all the time and part of my principle and value is that we have to make sure the change is good for ordinary people.
"(Apart from that), it is good for the farmers, the young students, good for women, good for developing countries but I do not believe, that we can stop change," he said, responding to a question posed during a townhall meeting with the alumni of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiatives (YSEALI) at the Taylor's University Lakeside Campus here today.
Obama, who arrived here for the 27th Asean Summit and Related Summits this afternoon, also said that in every trade negotiation, there are things that some countries need to give up in order to get trade deals done.
"For example, we have to open up some markets to goods that previously (were) subject to tariffs and somebody in our country will not like that (but), overall, it is good and it may be helpful to Malaysia, and in turn, we will be able to sell something to Malaysia and somebody in Malaysia, won't like that.
"That's the nature of negotiations in trade deals," he said.
Obama said it has been proven that market economies were the best generator of wealth for the world but it needed to have some government intervention to ensure fair competition and small businesses were not excluded by monopolists while some workers have some basic protection.
"So that's the kind of balance that is reflected in the TPPA (which) is also reflected in my policy both in the US and international," he added.
Touching on the pharmaceutical industry for instance, he said, there were some protection given to generic medicine especially for low income persons, including eliminating some tariffs for some, like penicillin and basic drugs that have been in the market for a very long time.
"(And) over time, we actually believe that the cost of drugs (medicine) are going down in many countries which currently have a lot of barriers in terms of those drugs.
"(Now) many US drug companies are mad at me because they said how come we don't get any protection. I said, part of our job is to promote US drug companies and part of our job is also to be good partners with countries that have people that are sick and make sure they also get access to drugs," said the US president.
Malaysia and 11 other countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Singapore, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the United States and Vietnam successfully concluded negotiations for the TPP on Oct 5, 2015.
According to International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, the content of the TPP and the two impact studies would be tabled in parliament next January.
This will be followed by a debate to decide whether Malaysia should sign the TPPA at end-January 2016 while the ratification of the agreement is expected to be realised after two years of signing the pact. -- Bernama