60 days enough to study TPPA, Salleh insists

(The Sun Daily) – Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak has rebutted claims by the opposition that 60 days was not enough to comprehend the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

In a blog post today, Salleh said it was because of the controversy surrounding the matter that the government has decided to allow it to be debated in parliament.

He said this was despite free trade agreements not requiring parliamentary scrutiny or approval, but merely the cabinet’s approval.

“The opposition’s complaint is that 60 days is not enough to understand the TPPA and that more time is required.

“Actually, 60 days to study the TPPA to prepare for the two-day debate that starts tomorrow should be enough time if done on a systematic and focused basis,” he said.

Salleh pointed that in the United Kingdom, debating the TPPA would have been the job of the Shadow Trade Minister, who would sit with his team and prepare their questions, comments, suggestion and objections to be debated in Parliament.

“The Shadow Minister would have found 60 days for preparation and two days for debates sufficient enough to get the job done. Unfortunately, Malaysia does not have one. And because of that the opposition is quite lost as to what to do,” he added.

PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar had earlier said that although the text was made public, they were only given 60 days to fully comprehend the over 6,350 pages of legal and trade jargon of the TPPA.