The Malaysia-United States Free Trade Agreement is a draft treaty between Malaysia and the United States of America. The treaty aims to mutually liberalize markets for the parties to the agreement and promote direct trade between the two countries. At the time of the proposal in 2005, the United States was Malaysia`s largest trading partner, while Malaysia is the United States` 10th largest trading partner. [1] Negotiations began in June 2005. [2] Free trade agreements generally have several different effects on trade flows. They tend to divert export and import trade to the countries concerned, but they can also create more trade overall by lowering tariffs and other barriers to trade. Free trade agreements can also have a substitution effect, as imports replace domestic production. In this case, competing import industries may suffer and seek help to adapt to increased competition through imports. The “FTA Malaysia” website is www.ftamalaysia.org/ a link to information provided by groups, organizations and individuals opposed to the United States-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement. Areas of particular interest to U.S. exporters include the removal of malaysian trade barriers for automobiles and certain agricultural products, provisions to enforce intellectual property rights, and wider access to Malaysia`s services sectors such as financial services, telecommunications, and professional services. In the services sector, the United States has used the negative list approach to determine which sectors are excluded from the agreement.63 Malaysia prefers to use a positive list approach that excludes services sectors unless they are listed in the agreement.
A free trade agreement (FTA) is an international agreement between two or more countries aimed at reducing or eliminating barriers to trade and bringing economic integration closer together. As for workers` interests, the AFL-CIO rejects supplementary free trade agreements unless they contain meaningful protection of workers` rights and environmental standards. Their position is that the Bush administration has created or entered into bilateral free trade agreements that contain no enforceable protection for key workers` rights and “deviate from previous labour rights agreements and contain many of the same flawed rules that exacerbated our trade deficit” under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).85 Labour organizations are also interested in ensuring that the labour legislation of the bilateral trading partner country be updated. The President. After the adoption and implementation of the free trade agreements negotiated with Colombia and South Korea, Barack Obama expressed some support for the unions` concerns about the labour provisions of the free trade agreements negotiated with Colombia and South Korea. These bilateral trade and investment agreements were conceived as building blocks of a future region-to-region agreement. The administration reports that it is unlikely to ask Congress to substantially change U.S. import laws (trade laws) due to negotiations on a free trade agreement with Malaysia. Table 1 summarizes Malaysia`s main economic indicators. Malaysia has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world in recent years.
In early 2008, Malaysia experienced a sharp rise in inflation, but inflationary pressures eased as the effects of the economic slowdown in the US and the EU affected Malaysian exports. Malaysia`s GDP and average per capita income make it a much larger market than most countries that have recently negotiated free trade agreements with the United States. At official exchange rates, per capita income in 2007 was $6,724, but its purchasing power parity was estimated by the World Bank at $13,570, more than Argentina, Chile and Mexico.99 The AFL-CIO and the Malaysian Congress of Trade Unions signed a joint declaration on a free trade agreement between the United States and Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on 22 January 2007, stating that any agreement “must lead to widely shared benefits for workers and communities, not simply expand and enforce corporate power and privileges.” For more details, see “U.S. Unions Opposition Free Trade with Malaysia,” by Anil Netto, Inter Press Service News Agency, January 22, 2007. In Asia, Malaysia has already concluded free trade agreements with Japan and Singapore and is negotiating free trade agreements with Australia, India, New Zealand and Pakistan. Meanwhile, China has signed a free trade agreement with ASEAN, to which Malaysia belongs, which includes an agreement on trade in services that entered into force in July 2007. .