Malaysia has been officially welcomed as the 11th member of CPTTP after the government through the Ministry of International Trade and Industries officially ratified the agreement.
Following a meeting with CPTTP Commission, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong announced that Malaysia had completed its official ratification process of the CPTTP Free Trade Agreement.
“Malaysia’s addition as a party to the CPTPP will further deepen economic integration, boost the economic coverage of the agreement and enhance the mutual benefits that parties reap from the CPTPP,” said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in a statement
The CPTTP will enter into force on November 29 leaving only Brunei and Chile as the only nations yet to ratify the trade pact.
In his FB post, Senior Trade Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali said “After five long years, we have finally ratified the CPTPP, attending the Commission Meeting as a ratified party, for whom the Agreement will enter into force on 29 November 2022.
In the joint media conference, I reiterated Malaysia’s full commitment towards achieving the objectives of the Partnership, to deepen regional economic integration and leverage the rules-based multilateral trading system.
CPTPP will further add impetus to our ongoing economic recovery efforts, particularly in pushing forward an agenda for growth that is progressive, sustainable, and inclusive.
I thank all CPTPP Parties and Signatories for their unrelenting support extended to Malaysia, throughout the years”.
For the first time, all representatives of the CPTTP bloc met inn person since the pandemic including Ministers and senior officials representing New Zealand, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam.
Backgrounder, the CPTPP is the successor of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which pulled together 12 nations around the Pacific rim, including Singapore and the United States, to draw up a more ambitious set of trading rules.
The TPP died in January 2017 when the Donald Trump administration in the US withdrew from the agreement despite it already being signed. The 11 remaining nations decided to continue as the CPTPP.
