See this. http://www.samba.org/~tridge/fta_statement.html
The US normally uses these Free Trade Agreements to backdoor their
legislation into the legislation of the target nations. this has
happened previously in Chile, Australia for starters with every nation
who’s signed the FTA being subject to American legislation. somehow as a
citizen of an independent nation, it is abhorrent that legislators in
another country can decide what i should be doing in my country and
depriving the legislators which we voted in the freedom to decide how to
govern.
the FTA itself forces signatory countries to duplicate/mirror lots of
american legislation to the detriment of the smaller countries, Malaysia
included. my understanding of how this affects us is limited to
intellectual property rights and the ICT industry, but i’m sure there’re
other trade segments which are similarly affected.
And this is interesting... Unfortunately the US is turning its attention
to Malaysia for its next FTA. Sri Lanka may be on the agenda, who knows.
>
> As stated by Third World Network legal advisor Chee Yoke Ling,
> TWN, CAP and SAM have been analyzing the FTAs already signed by
> the US with several developing countries, and they are also
> monitoring the controversial negotiations with Thailand that
> have led to massive public protests and demonstrations in
> Thailand because of the potential adverse impact of such a FTA.
>
> At the forum on “The implications of the Malaysia-US FTA on
> Malaysian Citizens” organized by the three organizations, many
> concerns were raised at the discussion, including the impact of
> reducing tariffs on sensitive products such as rice, giving US
> investors the right to sue the Malaysian Government, changing
> Malaysian intellectual property laws that would make medicines
> very expensive and opening up vital sectors of our economy.
>
> Malaysia and the US started preliminary discussions on the FTA
> early this year. The pressure is on for the Malaysia-US FTA to
> be signed before June 2007, as the Trade Promotion Authority
> (TPA) which grants the US President a fast track authority
> without going to Congress is to be dissolved on 1st July 2007.
>
Molly
Richard Schilling wrote:
>Nandalal Gunaratne wrote:
>
>
>
>> Definitely no anti-US sentiments from here.
>>
>> But we worry about the laws which stifle the development of lesser developed
>> countires in their progress inICT.
>>
>>
>
>Really? That amazes me. Alright, I'll play U.S. QnA session here. Tell
>me your concerns and I'll try to address them as they relate to OSCHA
>operating internationally with members in the U.S.
>
>First off...
>
>Silly patents that have been applied for are irrelevant to OSCHA.
>Membership in the WTO, as Malaysia has achieved, help protect OSCHA's
>intellectual properties.
>
>If OSCHA is registered in the U.S. as a trade association all anyone has
>to do is sign up. It's that easy.
>
>If OSCHA is registered as a domestic, U.S. non-profit corporation all we
>have to do is direct OSCHA resources to carry out its mission in other
>countries. OSCHA branches in other countries might have different
>limitations and permissions on its activities.
>
>
>Richard
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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