May
7, 10 5:31am
The
United States said Thursday it was keen for Malaysia to enter
negotiations on a trans-Pacific trade deal after the two countries
shelved talks on a bilateral agreement.
US
Trade Representative Ron Kirk held talks this week with Malaysian Trade
Minister Mustapa Mohamed, who traveled with colleagues from Brunei,
Indonesia and Laos to Seattle to promote business opportunities across
the Pacific.
Mustapa
indicated that Malaysia was interested in exploring the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, a once-obscure pact revived by President Barack Obama as
other trade deals languish before the US Congress.
"It's
not my place to telegraph what Malaysia would do, but obviously that is
an economy that we are very interested in having join," Kirk told a
forum in Washington of the East-West Center.
"We've
been very honest in our outreach to them that we think that having them
participate in this process makes a more sellable case to the American
public than a stand-alone free trade agreement," Kirk said.
US-Malaysia
trade talks had dragged on for eight rounds, bogged down in sensitive
areas including Malaysia's system of affirmative action for Muslim
Malays who dominate the multi-racial population.
The
countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks are Australia,
Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and
Vietnam.
Lawmakers
from Obama's Democratic Party have been critical of free trade pacts,
fearing that they would hurt US workers.
The
previous administration of George W. Bush completed negotiations with
South Korea on a free trade pact, but the Congress has yet to act on it
with Washington seeking more concessions for US automakers.
Congress
has also held up trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.
Obama
has promised to South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak to work to move
forward the free-trade agreement, which Seoul sees as crucial to
improving the competitiveness of a nation situated between giants China
and Japan.
But
Obama and his congressional allies have set no deadline and the European
Union has since signed its own free trade pact with South Korea.
Kirk
acknowledged that the Obama administration faced political hurdles to
bringing any of the free trade pacts to a vote.
"More
important than getting any one deal done is being honest and addressing
the underlying, fundamental cynicism that is beginning to creep in"
about free trade, Kirk said.
"Too
many Americans believe that we've gotten cheap T-shirts and cheaper
consumer electronics but that we've shipped all our jobs overseas," he
said.
Arguing
that trade benefits the US economy overall, he said: "Those of us who
believe in trade owe it to ourselves to honestly sit down and listen" to
workers' concerns.
He
acknowledged, however, that "the clock is ticking."
"I
want to get this done sooner than later," he said of the South Korea
free trade pact. "I don't want to give the European Union or any other
group of businesses any more headstart on America."