At the recently held 8th Trade Policy Review of Malaysia held at the World Trade Organisation Secretary General Of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Isham Ishak said Malaysia is committed to upholding the rule-based multilateral trading system, as well as to implementing economic reforms and good practices in the areas of trade, investment, and environmental sustainability.
For this year, Malaysia received a total of 367 questions from 28 WTO Members with a majority number of questions from the United States, India, Australia, the European Union and ASEAN Member States. These questions have covered a number of areas such as trade openness, intellectual property rights, food security, halal certification, financial services, sustainable development, e-commerce, SME development, free trade agreements, standards, and good issues related to trade and gender.
37 WTO members made intervention by raising questions and providing positive comments on Malaysia’s trade and investment policies during the two-day TPR exercise. Most of the members have commended Malaysia on its economic
performance despite challenges posed by the pandemic, as well as Malaysia’s continued efforts to improve its domestic legislation to meet international standards, especially in the areas of intellectual property and labour rights.
Members also commended Malaysia’s productive contributions to regional trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Members observed these developments as a building block for progressive multilateral trade liberalisation. Malaysia was applauded for her active participation in the WTO discussions, such as Joint Statement Initiatives on Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) and e-Commerce, the Cairns Group, and WTO Reform meetings. Currently, the Permanent Mission of Malaysia in Geneva is led by Ambassador Syahril Syazli Ghazali.
TPR is an exercise mandated in the WTO agreements, as part of the transparency obligation, where the WTO Members’ trade and trade-related policies and measures are examined and evaluated. Previous TPR of Malaysia was held in 2018
