MALAYSIA FTA RENEGOTIATIONS START IN JUNE

KOTA BAHARU (Malaysia), May 25 (Bernama) -- Renegotiations on the Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) between Malaysia and three other countries namely the United
States (US), Australia and New Zealand will begin in the middle of June.

International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamad said his ministry
would hold separate meetings with the three countries to discuss the direction
and actual picture to ensure that the process to realise the FTA between the
three countries and Malaysia was achieved.

"I will look again at Malaysia's position and stand regarding the FTA and
will inform the Cabinet on the matter for discussion.

"I'm also waiting for the mandate from Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on the
matter," he told reporters after a meeting with agencies under his ministry, in
this northeast city Sunday.

He was commenting on the statement by the United States Ambassador to
Malaysia, James R.Keith, on Thursday that Malaysia was now on the right track to
proceed with a new round of negotiations on the FTA with the US following the
implementation of the liberalisation policy announced by the Malaysian
government recently.

Keith said that since the negotiations last year, the Barack Obama
administration had been reviewing all aspects of the agreement and would speed
up the new round of negotiations with Malaysia.

The most significant difference is between the developed nations led by the
European Union (EU), the US and Japan, and the developing countries represented
by India, Brazil, China and South Africa.

The last negotiation on July 23 last year was stalled after it failed to
reach a compromise on the rules of importing agricultural produce and the main
negotiations were not expected to be revived until 2009.

However, negotiations between the US, China and India were held towards the
end of last year to agree on the model for negotiations, however no progress had
been made.
-- BERNAMA