KUALA LUMPUR: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), 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 US President Barack Obama.
Addressing the concerns by several quarters on the TPPA, 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. I believe it is a good deal and we will get it done.
“(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 at the Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus here yesterday.
Obama who arrived in KL for the 27th AseanSummit and Related Summits this afternoon also said that in every trade negotiation, there would be 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. — Bernama