US-Malaysia FTA talks expected to be wrapped up by year-end
Business Times, Malaysia
US-Malaysia FTA talks expected to be wrapped up by year-end
By Rupa Damodaran
27 June 2006
The ongoing Malaysia-US free trade agreement (FTA) talks can be concluded within the schedule of meetings lined up till the end of the year, says Howard F. Rosen, the executive director of the US-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Trade Adjustment Assistance Coalition.
He was speaking at a luncheon talk hosted by the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Rosen pointed out that the signing in 2004 of the Malaysia-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, a forum to address trade issues, had placed the two countries in a stronger position to conclude their FTA talks.
Rosen, who is also a visiting fellow at the Washington-based Institute of International Economics, will be speaking today at a forum on The US-Malaysia FTA at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations in Kuala Lumpur.
From a US perspective, South-East Asia is going to be a source of economic growth for the next decade and the world’s largest economy would not want to be left out, especially if there is potential of an Asian trading bloc, he said.
Rosen, who was in Bangkok recently, does not expect pharmaceuticals to pose a big issue in the Malaysia-US FTA talks, as they did in Thailand.
He listed governance, transparency, regulatory environment, competition policy, government procurement, labour, environment and rules of origin as issues in the US-Malaysia FTA talks.
Rosen also listed agriculture (palm oil and rice), services (higher education, tourism and travel, financial services, professional and business services) and automotive market access as main sectoral issues.
