Malaysia can engage other regional agreements without TPPA, says academician

The fallout of the Trans-Pacific Agreement (TPPA), would enable Malaysia to engage other regional agreements with more intensity, particularly with China as the country is the world's second largest economy, says an academician.

Sunway University Business School Economics Professor Yeah Kim Leng said the United States, which has rejected the TPPA, was a case of missed opportunity.

"However, it gives us the opportunity to look at other regional trade agreements, for example, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), spearheaded by China.

"We also have free trade areas in Asia Pacific and these are some of the possible regional agreements that Malaysia could pursue in order to partake in trade relations to manage the losses," he told reporters here today on the sidelines of the 19th Malaysia Strategic Outlook Conference 2017.

Yeah was a panelist at the one-day conference organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute.

He also said the immediate impact from the US pulling out of the TPPA was minimal, however, Malaysia should continue bilateral trade with the US because free trade agreements eventually lead to multilateral agreements.

"It will be more advantageous with more countries involved and if it's just bilateral trade agreements, it is very resource intensive to negotiate," he said.

Yeah added that it was better to participate in multilateral trade agreements such the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), ASEAN-European Union and others.

On economic outlook, he said although exports continued to fall, global growth was improving since the second half of last year.

"The current indicator suggests that in the first half of 2017, Malaysia would enjoy better growth momentum, as we are quite positive that the export increase registered in November can be maintained. - BERNAMA