MALAYSIA WILL RETAIN ITS STAND ON FTA WITH USA

KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will stick to its stand and not compromise in several sensitive areas such as agriculture during the next round of negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement with the US this July, says Minister of International Trade and Industry Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said the interest of the country, as well as that of its farmers, planters and fishermen would continue to be paid attention during the negotiations.

The agriculture sector is important to the country and any agreement likely to affect the sector will not be made, he told the Dewan Rakyat Monday.

"This is the reason (for an example) why we did not agree to include the planting of padi in the negotiations," he said in reply to a question from Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) on the effects an US-Malaysia FTA will have on the country's agriculture sector.

Earlier, in reply to a question from Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR-Permatang Pauh) on the reasons for the delay in the FTA, Muhyiddin said negotiations with the US, which started in March 2006, will continue until a satisfying and mutually benefitting deal is reached.

Todate, seven round of negotiations have been held with dicussions on certain areas still continuing, he said.

The last round was held in Kuala Lumpur from January 14-17 this year. Since then, technical negotiations have been held through video conferencing and telephone.

Considering that the FTA negotiations are comprehensive and being carried out through 19 working groups by the relevant ministries and agencies, all matters concerned will be given indepth consideration before the solutions are found to benefit the country, he said.

On the implications of the deal to the country's competitiveness and economy compard with neighbouring countries like Singapore which has already signed a FTA with the US, Muhyiddin said in terms of trading of manufactured goods there was not much significant implications to Malaysia.

"Malaysia is the US' second largest trade partner in the Asean region and is also its 13th largest source of global import, contributing 1.7 percent to the the US' total global import," he said.

Malaysia's exports also do not directly compete with that of Singapore's, he said.