Malaysia gets first-mover advantage by joining TPPA earlier

He reiterated that Malaysia, among others, managed to protect preferences for Bumiputera, small businesses and the local halal industry during the trade deal negotiations.

If Malaysia were to adopt a wait-and-see attitude, it may lose all the advantages negotiated if it decides to join the TPPA later, he added.

"We have to renegotiate (the deal) if we were to join it later, but we may not get all those items back " he told reporters following a briefing on the TPPA at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia here on Wednesday.

At the gathering attended by more than 500 academicians and students, Mustapa elaborated on the trade pact and rebutted criticism that the ministry was not being opaque about the negotiations.

Responding to an issue highlighted by Kelana Jaya Member of Parliament Wong Chen that the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC)'s analysis showed that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and exports could only grow an extra 0.22 per cent at most under the TPPA and there would be a risk of a 30 per cent dip in balance of trade, Mustapa said Malaysia's trade would still be in surplus.

"PWC report shows that there would be benefits and challenges, but overall, the pact gives more benefits than challenges.

"The government realises that we need to boost our export, as such we came up with initiatives like the establishment of the National Export Council, and we have introduced several measures in order to be more aggressive in our export and explore new markets.

"TPP itself is an instrument that could diversify our trade so as not to become dependent solely on East Asia like China," he said.

On the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), another proposed free trade agreement between ASEAN and six states, of which ASEAN has existing FTAs, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, Mustapa said the government is committed in seeing its completion by end of this year.

"TPPA shall motivate the conclusion of RCEP. The next meeting would be in February and we will intervene at the ministerial level if there were not much progress made," he added.

The TPPA, which involved 12 countries, namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US, Vietnam, and Malaysia, accounts for almost 40 per cent of the world's GDP and a third of global trade.