She said that if the TPPA continued to be politicised, it would hurt Malaysia as the trade deal offered more merits than demerits to the country.

“So, don’t politicise anything on TPPA. You politicise it, we can say goodbye to becoming a develop country because with that kind of Third World mentality, we will never get there.”

She was speaking to reporters after giving a talk at a forum entitled “The Transpacific Partnership Agreement – Potential Economic Impact on the Malaysian Economy” here today.

Rafidah said as the government was negotiating the TPPA, it was very important to let sectors under the trade deal to flourish and enjoy the benefits extended by the TPP member states.

“It will be a setback to the country if certain quarters were to continue to politicise the negotiations as we know the TPPA is not comprehensive. It involves only 12 countries and certain sectors.

“So, I hope we let the government sign and implement it so that the sectors that have been identified can really benefit from the opening of the markets that they badly needed.”

Rafidah said among the sectors that would benefit from the TPPA were the commodity, automotive, telecommunication, textile and construction sectors, while Bumiputera rights would not be impeded.

“For rubber products, new markets in the US, Canada and Peru, which were valued at US$1.3 billion in 2014 can double or triple. Our market access will be much better than China.”

On Feb 4, Malaysia and 11 other countries, namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam signed the TPPA, which is set to expand markets, reduce tariffs and promote freer trade.

– BERNAMA