Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
SAM co-ordinator Mohd Nizam Mahshar said it was obvious that both governments are keen on signing the agreement and that compromise on contentious issues is still a possibility.
<P>He said a deal may still be signed
before the end of next month, the deadline that would allow US President George
W Bush to ‘fast-track’ the agreement and present it for congressional
approval within three months.</P><P>The fifth round of negotiations ended last
Friday in Sabah without the next round being scheduled. Both sides have expressed
doubts that an agreement can be reached before the deadline. </P><P>“However,
that does not mean there will not be a FTA,” said Nizam, citing reports of
a possible compromise between the US Trade Representative (USTR) and the Ministry
of International Trade and Industry (Miti) on such key issues as government procurement,
investment and the services sector.</P><P>An online publication last week disclosed
that US negotiators had expressed willingness to allow Malaysia to reserve more
of its government procurement market for certain domestic suppliers in return
for better concessions in banking, telecommunications and hospital services. </P><P>Miti
is expected to brief the cabinet tomorrow on the ‘deal breakers’ that
will decide whether there is any point in proceeding with the talks or to stop
the talks altogether.</P><P><B>Public pressure</B></P><P>Other groups, meanwhile,
spoke of success in having caused the impasse by forcing the government to consider
more seriously the implications of an FTA with the US.</P><P>Anti-America-Malaysia
FTA coalition chairperson Xavier Jeyakumar said the impasse was a result of the
“people’s pressure” on the government to tone down its enthusiasm
for the FTA.</P><P>Echoing him, Parti Sosialis Malaysia national treasurer A Sivarajan
said there has been a lot of change in the government’s stance since it first
entered into the talks last year.</P><P>“Minister for International Trade
and Industry Rafidah Aziz at first appeared quite confident about how the FTA
would bring in more trade, saying it would not affect sovereignty and so on,”
he said.</P><P>“But I think we’ve succeeded in putting enough pressure
on the ministry to look more closely at the FTA by showing how other countries
have fared badly on account of their FTA with the US, and making the government
consider whether it really will benefit Malaysia.”</P><P>Groups of farmers,
fishermen, workers and people living with HIV/Aids have all joined the organised
protests against the FTA negotiations.</P><P><I>Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/63386</I>
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