KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 (Bernama) — Malaysia holds a crucial position in the ongoing Asean-Canada Free Trade Agreement negotiations, Canada’s Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development Minister Mary Ng said.
Ng said the Canadian negotiation teams attended the seventh round of talks for the multilateral agreement, and praised the progress made while also noting lingering issues typical of negotiations.
“There are issues to be ironed out as much as it is a negotiation,” she said during Bernama TV’s talk show “The Nation: Canada-Malaysia Relations and Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy” Monday.
Canada was elevated to strategic partner status last year, which effectively means that Canada and Asean will closely collaborate in strategic areas of mutual interest.
Malaysia is Canada’s Asean country coordinator and given Malaysia’s role as the Asean lead chair next year, Ng expressed Canada’s optimism that trade negotiations could be finalised by 2025.
“Malaysia being the country lead chair next year (for Asean) is terrific because we’re going to keep working hard at that negotiation and our goal is to meet a 2025 deadline,” she said.
During the talk show, she highlighted that while some countries are already part of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the Asean-Canada trade agreement negotiations will include others who are not.
“Deepening that relationship here in this region is important because we know that this region is among the fastest-growing in the world. What we’re looking for in this relationship are resilient supply chain partners.
She said whether it be food or energy security, or digital partnerships, it is important to fight climate change while building a green economy, be it in the Indo-Pacific or Canada.
Ng stressed Canada’s respect for Asean centrality and emphasised the importance of creating an architecture that facilitates trade and collaboration between Canada and Asean member states.
“It isn’t just trade for trade’s sake. It is also to advance those people-to-people relationships. Canada’s perspective on trade focuses on ensuring that our trade agreements consider opportunities that benefit everyone in our society.
“So it’s about ensuring that when we’re trading, small and medium-sized businesses will have the opportunity to participate, including those that have often been under-represented in our economies, such as women entrepreneurs, youth entrepreneurs, and indigenous entrepreneurs,” Ng said.
— BERNAMA
