Malaysia & the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) ; Other News From Asia

“We are against the patent extension. According to the agreement, if a medicine is launched in the US, and then three years later it is launched in Malaysia, the patent would start from when it is launched here and not when it was launched earlier in the US, this is not fair.” [5]

The proposed legislation on Intellectual Property will have enormous ramifications for TPP signatories, including Internet termination for households, businesses, and organizations as an accepted penalty for copyright infringement. In addition to allowing copyright holders to ban parallel imports of copywritten material and prioritizing national police to enforce copyright laws, a drastic expansion of copyright duration for sound recordings and film is imposed. [6] Signatory nations would essentially submit themselves to oppressive copyright restrictions in line with American law, severely limiting their ability to digitally exchange information on sites like YouTube, where streaming videos can be considered copyrightable. Patricia Ranald, convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network offers:

“Broader copyright and intellectual property rights demands by the US would lock up the Internet, stifle research and increase education costs, by extending existing generous copyright from 70 years to 120 years, and even making it a criminal offense to temporarily store files on a computer without authorization. The US, as a net exporter of digital information, would be the only party to benefit from this.” [7]

Proposed measures would restrict signatory nations from exercising capital controls to prevent and mitigate financial crises and promote financial stability. Malaysia was able to recover from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis more quickly than its neighbors by introducing a series of capital control measures on the Malaysian Ringgit to prevent external speculation. Under the TPP, nations would not have the ability to independently pursue monetary policy and issue capital controls, and must permit the free flow of derivatives, currency speculation and other predatory financial instruments. [8] Signatories to the TPP could have their domestic policies (health policy, land use policy, government procurement decisions, regulatory permits, intellectual property rights, monetary regulation) legally overwritten before foreign tribunals, giving external investors the right to pursue claims against a nation outside the regulations of that nation’s own judicial system.

In the private “investor-state” that the TPP is attempting to establish, national governments can be sued by foreign corporations, submitting signatory countries to the jurisdiction of investor arbitral tribunals, staffed by private sector attorneys. Foreign tribunals could order governments to pay unlimited cash compensation out of national treasuries to foreign corporations and investors if new or existing government policy hinders investors’ “expected future profits”. Any compensation paid to private investors and foreign corporations, in addition to large hourly fees for tribunals and legal costs would be shouldered by the domestic taxpayer in each signatory country. Under this regime, foreign investors and multinational corporations can undermine the sovereignty of participatory nations by skirting domestic regulations and limiting the abilities of national governments to issue policy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would oblige nations to alter their domestic policy to comply with twenty-six proposed chapters of legislation, including financial, health-care, telecommunications, food and product standards, land use and natural resources, government procurement, and more.

Undoubtedly, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a document is constructed to serve private, not public interests, by exempting private corporations from any form of public accountability. The analysis provided in this article is based on two leaked chapters of the proposed agreement (which may or may not be subject to amendments prior to the conclusion of negotiations); the other twenty-four chapters have not been released for public scrutiny, or even to policymakers in those participating countries. Other than the national delegation for each participating country, the only people who have been allowed to see the actual text of the proposed agreement are members of various Trade Advisory Committees and top corporate executives, with no representatives from academia or civil society. The blanketing secrecy over the entire negotiation process is nothing short of alarming, with legislation in place to keep text proposals from being publically released until four years after the close of negotiations. [9] The next round of TPP negotiations is set to take place in Leesburg, Virginia in early September. [10] Prime Minister Najib Razak has said Malaysia is committed to being a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

“I hope sometimes in the near future we will be able to conclude TPP. It is important for the US to have free trade with ASEAN. ASEAN is a US$2 trillion (RM6.30 trillion) market of 600 million people and there is not another trade bloc with momentum like it in the world.” [11]

Ostensibly, the TPP can be seen as an attempt by the United States to build a coalition in which its corporate interests dominate the ASEAN region to counter China’s increasing economic prowess. Leaders and citizens alike must reexamine their stance on this issue and consider the enormous negative ramifications it would hold for consumers and domestic industry. Previous attempts to negotiate a US-Malaysia bilateral free trade agreement in 2006 – 2010 have failed; one would hope that attempts to implement a Trans-Pacific Partnership suffer a similar fate.

Notes

[1] 55 Years Of Development Through Harmony, 1Malaysia, August 29, 2012

[2] Public Interest Analysis of Leaked Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Investment Text, Public Citizen, June 13, 2012

[3] Why so secretive about TPP trade talks?, FMT News, November 09, 2012

[4] NGOs concerned over medical issues related to TPP, The Sun Daily, August 04, 2012

[5] Malaysia says no to TPP, The Sun Daily, August 06, 2012

[6] Exporting copyright: Inside the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership, Ars Technica, May 18, 2012

[7] Trans-Pacific Trade Pact Reveals U.S.’s Unbridled Corporate Agenda, Inter Press Service, March 09, 2012

[8] Malaysia needs to maintain tools for capital controls, Centre for Policy Initiatives, March 08, 2012

[9] Intellectual Property Rights Chapter, Citizens Trade Campaign, September 2011

[10] 14th Round of TPP Negotiations Set for Leesburg, Virginia, Office of the United States Trade Representative, 2012

[11] Najib: Go out and be regional champions, The Star, May 29, 2012

Originally published by the Asia Times Online

Nile Bowie is a Kuala Lumpur-based American writer and photographer for the Centre for Research on Globalization based in Montreal, Canada. He explores issues of terrorism, economics and geopolitics.

Hong Kong citizens protest against government brainwashing while American citizens embrace Communist ideals

Here’s a case in point.

Recently, officials in Hong Kong backed off plans to force students there to take Chinese patriotism classes after a week of protests in the one-time British colony that were ignited over fears of pro-Beijing “brainwashing,” the Associated Press reported.

The leader of the semi-autonomous city, Leung Chun-ying, said it will be up to schools to decide for themselves whether they want to hold the classes, which were on pace to become a mandatory part of curriculum in 2015 after a three-year voluntary period.

Anger and resentment over the classes have been mounting for months, the Post reported, stoked by fears that the classes were part of a plan by authorities in Beijing to indoctrinate the city’s younger residents into unflinchingly supporting China’s Communist Party, though Leung and other senior officials denied that.

‘The China Model

China, you may recall, regained control of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997 after more than 100 years of colonial rule. As part of the agreement, Hong Kong was allowed to retain a large amount of autonomy, a separate legal system and civil liberties not enjoyed in the rest of China, like freedom of speech.

Leung’s change of heart came after a week of protests by thousands of people who massed in front of government headquarters to coincide with the beginning of a new school year. Organizers say as many as 120,000 people showed up to protest, but police put the number closer to 36,000, according to local news reports.

The decision came just a day before city legislature elections, in which voters were allowed for the first time to choose more than half the seats. Mounting opposition to the indoctrination plan was being seen as potentially undermining support for pro-Beijing candidates.

Protesters said they were concerned that the new subject matter was a thinly veiled attempt by the Chinese government to inculcate young people with nationalist education courses like those used in schools all over China to build support for the Asian giant’s communist government.

Such fears only increased after a pro-Beijing education group published material earlier this year championing the virtues of one-party rule. Government officials stressed that the pamphlet, titled, “The China Model,” was not a part of the mandated teaching materials.

The course curriculum guidelines called for instructing students about the accomplishments of Chinese political leaders, along with the contributions they’ve made to society and the difficulties and challenges they continue to face. Students would also learn how to “speak cautiously,” practice self-discipline and to get along well with others in a responsible, rational and respective manner.

Good ole’ American democracy – In Hong Kong?

The controversy is just the latest sign of growing discomfort with mainland China’s attempts at exerting more influence over the city. Residents of Hong Kong have also been miffed about stymied democratic development and a rise in the number of wealthy mainland residents gobbling up property and driving up prices.

Contrast this growing democracy movement with what is happening in the United States.

Increasingly, Americans seem more willing to embrace the Communist China ideals of government owning and running industry (GM, large banks), criminalization of public protests (if your point of view differs from the powers that be), the proliferation of police checkpoints, nullification of the Bill of Rights, efforts to disarm citizens or make it harder to protect yourself, and in the case of one man in Oregon, criminalizing ownership of rainwater.

Hong Kong residents are right to distrust the motives of China’s one-party rulers. If only more Americans were as scrutinizing.

Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.seattlepi.com

http://www.nytimes.com

Island dispute escalates between China and Japan: China sends ships to Senkaku

September 14, 2012 – JAPAN – Tensions between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands, known the Diayu Islands in China, located in the East China Sea escalated. The Japanese media reported that China dispatched four maritime ships toward the islands after the Japanese government purchased three of the disputed islands on September 11 for approximately $26 million from a private Japanese owner. China says it is an attempt to “steal its property” and they are ready to “assert” the country’s sovereignty over the islands. “I don’t believe it will grow into a military confrontation,” said Koichiro Yoshida, vice president of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly and ruling Democratic Party of Japan member. “But if it does and the Chinese vessels enter the territorial waters around the Islands, Japan should take aggressive measures. We must protect the rights of our citizens and our sovereignty over the islands.” The dispute is spilling over into Japan’s economy. For example, Nissan Motor’s sales in August fell and many joint events as well as Chinese tours to Japan have been canceled. “But I don’t expect it to have a massive negative impact on our economic relations,” Yoshida said. “Japan is a major investor and China is our largest trading partner. Although Chinese consumers might not buy Japanese brands because of this. I suspect there is too much at risk for both countries, but it will be more damaging for China.” The islands are near rich fishing grounds and believed to contain undersea natural gas and oil fields. According to Tokyo businessman Hiro Ito, “China’s argument does not have any legal merits. We only purchased islands that we had been leasing. I expect they will continue to challenge us.” Anti-Japanese hostility runs deep in China. The issue has caused growing demonstrations in cities across China and some attacks on Japanese businesses. There is no doubt that the Senkaku dispute will linger and create ill-will and distrust on both sides, complicating any resolution. Meanwhile the governments in both countries are trying to manage the situation, since there is a lot at stake for Asia’s two biggest economies.

Cambodian Reporter Found Murdered After Uncovering Illegal Logging

RFA.org
September 13, 2012

A Cambodian journalist who exposed illegal logging and forest crimes involving the local elite has been murdered, police said Wednesday, after his battered body was found in the trunk of his car.

Hang Serei Oudom, 42, a reporter for the local Virakchum Khmer Daily newspaper, had been missing since Sunday afternoon and his body was found on Tuesday in northeastern Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province, said Ek Vun, the police chief for Balung City, the provincial capital.

Authorities are working to identify suspects involved in the murder of the reporter, who had recently written a string of stories about deforestation and timber smuggling in Ratanakiri, where logging and mining in recent years have taken a big toll on the environment.

Read full article

Trans-Pacific Partnership Takeover

Nile Bowie, Contributor
Activist Post

To commemorate Malaysia’s 55th Independence Day, Prime Minister Najib Razak published an article highlighting the nation’s various accomplishments, principally that while much of world’s economies are “either flat or falling,” Malaysia is steadily delivering high figures of economic growth. [1]

US Senator Ron Wyden, the Chair of the Congressional Committee with jurisdiction over TPP, was even denied access to the negotiation texts. [2] In Malaysia, members of parliament such as Charles Santiago have voiced frustrations over Putrajaya’s unwillingness to release any information regarding the agreement. [3] Based on information contained in two leaked chapters of the TPP agreement, the partnership aims to abolish the accountability of foreign corporations to the governments of countries with which they trade by introducing a myriad of new corporate rights and privileges. The proposed agreement would make signatory governments accountable to foreign corporations for costs imposed by national laws and regulations, including health, safety and environmental regulations, mandating that corporations receive compensation taken directly from domestic taxpayers and public funds.

Advocacy website Public Citizen has confirmed the authenticity of a leaked chapter of the TPP titled, “Investment,” and has issued a detailed analysis of the text. In addition to the leaked “Intellectual Property Rights” chapter, it can be concluded that the agreement illustrates the major goal of US multinational corporations to impose extreme foreign investor privileges and rights on developing countries by giving individual corporations and investors equal standing with each TPP signatory country’s government. NGOs such as the Malaysian AIDS Council and the Breast Cancer Welfare Association Malaysia have voiced their concern over the TPP’s restrictive intellectual property laws, which allow American drug companies to secure long-term monopolies on pharmaceutical products by preventing the production of generic drugs, thus increasing the price of medicine. [4] The United States is demanding aggressive intellectual property provisions that extend existing patents on medicines for up to 10 years in addition to the current requirement of 20 years. Malaysian Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai has spoken out against the TPP, arguing that such an agreement would make healthcare less affordable to the public:

We are against the patent extension. According to the agreement, if a medicine is launched in the US, and then three years later it is launched in Malaysia, the patent would start from when it is launched here and not when it was launched earlier in the US, this is not fair.” [5]

The proposed legislation on Intellectual Property will have enormous ramifications for TPP signatories, including Internet termination for households, businesses, and organizations as an accepted penalty for copyright infringement. In addition to allowing copyright holders to ban parallel imports of copyrighted material and prioritizing national police to enforce copyright laws, a drastic expansion of copyright duration for sound recordings and film is imposed. [6] Signatory nations would essentially submit themselves to oppressive copyright restrictions in line with American law, severely limiting their ability to digitally exchange information on sites like YouTube, where streaming videos can be considered copyrightable. Patricia Ranald, convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network offers:

Broader copyright and intellectual property rights demands by the US would lock up the Internet, stifle research and increase education costs, by extending existing generous copyright from 70 years to 120 years, and even making it a criminal offense to temporarily store files on a computer without authorization. The US, as a net exporter of digital information, would be the only party to benefit from this.” [7]

Proposed measures would restrict signatory nations from exercising capital controls to prevent and mitigate financial crises and promote financial stability. Malaysia was able to recover from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis more quickly than its neighbors by introducing a series of capital control measures on the Malaysian Ringgit to prevent external speculation. Under the TPP, nations would not have the ability to independently pursue monetary policy and issue capital controls, and must permit the free flow of derivatives, currency speculation and other predatory financial instruments. [8]

Signatories to the TPP could have their domestic policies (health policy, land use policy, government procurement decisions, regulatory permits, intellectual property rights, monetary regulation) legally overwritten before foreign tribunals, giving external investors the right to pursue claims against a nation outside the regulations of that nation’s own judicial system.

In the private “investor-state” that the TPP is attempting to establish, national governments can be sued by foreign corporations, submitting signatory countries to the jurisdiction of investor arbitral tribunals, staffed by private sector attorneys. Foreign tribunals could order governments to pay unlimited cash compensation out of national treasuries to foreign corporations and investors if new or existing government policy hinders investors’ “expected future profits”. Any compensation paid to private investors and foreign corporations, in addition to large hourly fees for tribunals and legal costs would be shouldered by the domestic taxpayer in each signatory country. Under this regime, foreign investors and multinational corporations can undermine the sovereignty of participatory nations by skirting domestic regulations and limiting the abilities of national governments to issue policy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would oblige nations to alter their domestic policy to comply with twenty-six proposed chapters of legislation, including financial, health-care, telecommunications, food and product standards, land use and natural resources, government procurement, and more.

Undoubtedly, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a document is constructed to serve private, not public interests, by exempting private corporations from any form of public accountability. The analysis provided in this article is based on two leaked chapters of the proposed agreement (which may or may not be subject to amendments prior to the conclusion of negotiations); the other twenty-four chapters have not been released for public scrutiny, or even to policymakers in those participating countries. Other than the national delegation for each participating country, the only people who have been allowed to see the actual text of the proposed agreement are members of various Trade Advisory Committees and top corporate executives, with no representatives from academia or civil society. The blanketing secrecy over the entire negotiation process is nothing short of alarming, with legislation in place to keep text proposals from being publically released until four years after the close of negotiations. [9] The next round of TPP negotiations is set to take place in Leesburg, Virginia in early September. [10] Prime Minister Najib Razak has said Malaysia is committed to being a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

I hope sometimes in the near future we will be able to conclude TPP. It is important for the US to have free trade with ASEAN. ASEAN is a US$2 trillion (RM6.30 trillion) market of 600 million people and there is not another trade bloc with momentum like it in the world.” [11]

Ostensibly, the TPP can be seen as an attempt by the United States to build a coalition in which its corporate interests dominate the ASEAN region to counter China’s increasing economic prowess. Leaders and citizens alike must reexamine their stance on this issue and consider the enormous negative ramifications it would hold for consumers and domestic industry. Previous attempts to negotiate a US-Malaysia bilateral free trade agreement in 2006 – 2010 have failed; one would hope that attempts to implement a Trans-Pacific Partnership suffer a similar fate.

Notes:

[1] 55 Years Of Development Through Harmony, 1Malaysia, August 29, 2012

[2] Public Interest Analysis of Leaked Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Investment Text, Public Citizen, June 13, 2012

[3] Why so secretive about TPP trade talks?, FMT News, November 09, 2012

[4] NGOs concerned over medical issues related to TPP, The Sun Daily, August 04, 2012

[5] Malaysia says no to TPP, The Sun Daily, August 06, 2012

[6] Exporting copyright: Inside the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership, Ars Technica, May 18, 2012

[7] Trans-Pacific Trade Pact Reveals U.S.’s Unbridled Corporate Agenda, Inter Press Service, March 09, 2012

[8] Malaysia needs to maintain tools for capital controls, Centre for Policy Initiatives, March 08, 2012

[9] Intellectual Property Rights Chapter, Citizens Trade Campaign, September 2011

[10] 14th Round of TPP Negotiations Set for Leesburg, Virginia, Office of the United States Trade Representative, 2012

[11] Najib: Go out and be regional champions, The Star, May 29, 2012

Originally published by the Asia Times Online