MEET THE FTA NEGOTIATORS: PART I

UNCLAS KUALA LUMPUR 000678 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE PASS USTR FOR B. WEISEL AND J. JENSEN USDOC FOR 4430/MAC/EAP/BAKER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD EINV MY SUBJECT: MEET THE FTA NEGOTIATORS: PART I ¶1. (SBU) Summary and introduction: Many of Malaysia's lead negotiators for the different FTA chapters took part in our Trade and Investment Framework (TIFA) discussions, but others are new faces. Econ counselor and econoffs are calling on all of the new negotiators to take their measure in advance of the negotiation. Following are sketches from the first three calls. Others will follow septel. Services -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Dr. Sarinder Kumari, Director of Multilateral Trade Policy and Negotiations at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) will be Malaysia's lead negotiator for the services chapter. She goes by her first name of Sarinder. Sarinder earned her MA in Economics from George Washington University and her Phd. from a Malaysian university. She is Malaysia's lead for services in the WTO and knows her U.S. counterparts in Geneva. She participated in the negotiations on Malaysia's Economic Cooperation Agreement (ECA) with Japan and characterizes those negotiations as "tough." ¶3. (SBU) Sarinder said Malaysia would have problems with a negative list approach for services. She argued that it should not matter whether there was a negative or a positive list as long as liberalization increased and both sides benefited. She suggested that Malaysia's aversion to a negative list is rooted in the insecurity it feels as the smaller and less developed economy in the negotiations. Malaysia would want to maintain control over the pace of liberalization in its market and could best do that through an incremental approach working from a positive list. She stressed that Malaysia has not accepted a negative list in any of its previous negotiations, noting that it took Malaysia a year and half to convince Japan to accept a positive list approach. She indicated an interest in emergency safeguard measures for services. Asked if she had a specific model for safeguards, she said "no", but noted that there were several papers circulating on the subject in Geneva, including one produced by an UNCTAD economist. She said that in the Japan ECA, they dealt with safeguards by creating a committee to study the issue. Transparency, Trade Remedies and Legal Issues - and Competition Policy -------------- -------------- 
¶4. (SBU) Rohana Abdul Malek (goes by Rohana) of the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) has been identified as a lead negotiator for three areas: transparency, trade remedies and legal issues. Azailiza Mohd. Ahad (goes by Azailiza), Director of the International Division of the AGC, may also become involved. Azailiza told econoffs that the Attorney General had directed her to stay closely engaged with the negotiations and had increased her staffing to accommodate the increased workload. Rohana has been involved in Malysia's FTA negotiations with New Zealand and Australia, although mostly behind the scenes. Rohana and Azailiza both were involved in drafting the Cabinet decision paper seeking approval to launch the FTA negotiations, and Rohana participated in the March 6-7 pre-FTA rollout bilateral meetings in Washington. Azailiza previously told econ counselor that she had studied a number of U.S. FTA's while working on the Cabinet paper. ¶5. (SBU) Azailiza observed that the Malaysian government would need to change its current practices to meet the requirements of the transparency chapter. She also volunteered that the government would have to "make up its mind"on the competition policy law that is currently being drafted. She hinted that different approaches to competition policy are under consideration, but would not provide details. Trade Remedies -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Norzita Abu Samah (goes by Norzita) Legal Advisor in the Trade Practices Division of MITI will be Malaysia's lead negotiator for trade remedies. Econoffs met her along with her Director, Wan Hasmah Wan Mohd (goes by Hasmah). Norzita has participated in Malaysia's FTA negotiations with New Zealand and Australia. She is one of about four lawyers at MITI. ¶7. (SBU) Norzita and Hasmah related to econoffs four different cases of U.S. anti-dumping actions against Malaysia; the oldest from 20 years ago. Nevertheless, Norzita indicated that she did not foresee her chapter becoming a difficult one. She speculated that it might be one of the first to be completed. Welcome to the Big Time -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Comment: All the officials econoffs met in these introductory meetings professed to be impressed by the resources the U.S. will bring to the negotiating table. Norzita, for example, almost gushed when informing Hasmah that "the U.S. has an entire agency (USITC) just to deal with trade remedies!" This prompted suggestions, such as Sarinder's arguments against a negative list, that the U.S. must be understanding of Malaysia's needs as the smaller and weaker partner. U.S. negotiators can expect this be a common theme as they engage with their Malaysian counterparts. LAFLEUR