ISDS Case Map
Malaysia
Local companies must step up their competitive edge to compete with products of foreign companies that will enter the Malaysian market in the goods and services sector under the liberalisation process of the World Trade Organization, Free Trade Agreements and Asean Framework Agreement on Services.
In order to fully realise FTA benefits, the government says it is imperative that Malaysian companies restructure and diversify their activities, rationalise industries through relocation of certain products to lower cost producing countries, move to higher-value added products and establish strategic partnerships or alliances with others.
The European Free Trade Association and Hong Kong are keen to establish a free trade agreement with Malaysia.
The Malaysia-US Free Trade Agreement talks are set to advance into the ninth round in November, International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said. Government procurement, competition policy, environment, labour, financial services and other sensitive areas could only be discussed but stay non-negotiable and non-binding, he added.
“I don't think they are going to adopt a very hardline approach with respect to us. I think they look at Malaysia as a modern Muslim country and want to have successful trade negotiations,” the director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research told Bernama. The problem is that the US is not confining the negotiations to purely trade matters.
Malaysia and the United States have achieved progress at the eighth round of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with both sides showing willingness to resolve outstanding issues.
We are shocked and disappointed to find that the government is persisting with the Malaysia- US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations despite all the protests and the fact that the US government is in transition. The latest round begins on Monday, July 14 in Washington, DC.
Malaysia is currently negotiating an FTA with the USA and the European Union and as with any North-South FTAs their scope are extensive. The Third World Network has produced a preliminary report looking at the likely impact of these FTAs on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia.
Malaysia and Pakistan should exploit their huge consumer market through a free trade agreement (FTA) to support each other's industrial growth, Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said.
Indian and Malaysian trade negotiators are racing to conclude the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CECA) by next year, with another eight rounds of talks to go.
