KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is on track in meeting the 2018 deadline for the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.

The TPP will come into effect as long as six countries accounting for 85 per cent of the blocs’ gross domestic product ratify the agreement, said International Trade and Industry Ministry secretary-general Datuk J. Jayasiri.

All 12 countries in the TPP have 24 months to ratify the agreement which was signed in February in New Zealand. The agreement will come into force 60 days after that.

On Saturday, Jayasiri launched The Kings Discourse on the TPP organised by Kings College London Alumni Malaysia and Columbia University Alumni Association.

The one-day event brought together embassy representatives, lawyers and industry players to analyse the impact of the TPP.

Should the TPP fall through, Jayasiri said Malaysia would find ways to engage with the four countries in the bloc with which Malaysia does not have an existing free trade agreement (FTA).

The 12 countries that negotiated the TPP included Malaysia, the United States, Japan, Australia, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico and Brunei.

The four new preferential markets for Malaysia through the multilateral FTA are the US, Peru, Canada and Mexico.

In his presentation, Jayasiri said the TPP was a done deal which would not be renegotiated.

The TPP, he said, promotes good governance where many of its requirements focused on transparency.

Most of the ranking agencies today look at good governance when ranking a country. Hopefully the TPP will bring us there, he said.

Being part of the TPP would demonstrate to the world that Malaysia is ready to negotiate high standard FTAs, he said, adding that a reluctance to participate in it would send a signal that Malaysia was frightened.

Indran Shanmuganathan of Shearn Delamore & Co said in terms of intellectual property laws, Malaysia was essentially almost compliant with most of the TPP standards, pending some structural amendments.

Take the copyright protection, for instance. The TPP protects copyright for the life of the author plus 70 years, while the current law covers life plus 50 years, he said.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2016