‘TPP not to be implemented without US ratification’

Malaysia has said that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TTP) will not be implemented nor re-negotiated if the US does not ratify the trade pact.

International Trade and Industry Ministry Secretary-General Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria said should that happen, the remaining 11 signatories to the TPPA would discuss the possibility of a different form of cooperation.

“If the US does not ratify the TPPA then it will not be implemented,” she told reporters after a panel discussion in conjunction with the World Bank’s launch of the Malaysia Economic Monitor Report in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Earlier during the panel discussion, Rebecca said the TPPA negotiations were beneficial to the Malaysian Government in addressing sensitive and critical issues.

On Tuesday, presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed to tear up America’s trade deals, threatened new tariffs and called for a new era of economic "Americanism".

Trump directly targeted Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, blaming her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs. And he threatened to exit the more than 2-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement and vowed to withdraw from the TPP.