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Malaysians Protest EU-Malaysia FTA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item 1 ‘FTA with EU will Kill HIV Patients’ Prices of medicine will be beyond reach to many once talks are concluded and they are likely to die as a result. Positive Malaysian Treatment Access and Advocacy
Group director Edward Low said that cheaper, generic HIV medicine cannot
be sold in “The FTA would stop locally-made generic medicine,
or even from About 50 Oppressed People’s Network (Jerit) and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members also joined in the protest. PSM officials said that EU representatives and government officials were going to engage in FTA negotiations at the hotel, but they were told the meeting would only be held tomorrow. The group later presented a memorandum to the EU office along Jalan Tun Razak. More than 10 police officers were present at the protest, though they did not interfere. Acoording to a Jerit brochure, medicine prices would increase in the face of an FTA because of tightened Intellectual Property protections. The brochure added that medicine prices in Low said that more than 93,000 out of an estimated 150,000 HIV patients depended on cheap anti-retroviral drugs to keep them alive. “If we stop using these drugs, we’ll die,” he said, adding that the drugs were currently subsidised by the government, allowing patients to collect them for free. He said that an FTA would force generic drug-companies out of the market, and penalise the Malaysian government for dealing with them. This, he said, would make HIV medicine too expensive for most patients to buy. SMEs also threatened DAP economist Charles Santiago said that an FTA would enable a foreign company to take the Malaysian government to court in the event of a business infringement. He also said that a FTA would end government procurement, and spell the death knell of the country’s Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs). “When an FTA is signed, both workers and SMEs will lose their jobs… because it destroys their livelihood,” he said. “After a FTA, government procurement will be opened to foreign companies to come in to compete for tenders.” “The government would also have to follow the dictates of the EU when it comes to policies,” added the Klang MP. PSM-Sungai Siput MP Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj
said that it was better for “We can’t play with rich nations,” he said. “If they wanted to lower their tariff, we would have to lower our tariffs.” Devaraj also said that a FTA would be more favourable to large corporations, and would sideline low-income workers such as farmers. According to the Jerit-drafted memorandum, a EU-FTA
would insist that “This will expose local chicken and other farmers
to subsidised imports from the EU and sold at prices below It added that Ghana’s chicken farmers ended up with a mere 11% domestic market share as opposed to the previous 95% market share when country’s chicken tariffs were cut and was flooded with subsidised EU chicken. “If this happened in ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item 2 Malaysians Protest EU Free Trade Agreements Hundreds of people protested outside the venue
where the second round of free trade negotiations between The protesters said the free trade deal, if inked, would adversely affect the poor and only benefit multinational corporations. The European Union-Malaysia free trade deal, the protesters claimed, would discourage and wipe out the country's agriculture and farming industries as EU highly subsidizes its farmers. The anti-FTA activists also carried coffins to
signify the possible fatality rates as For example HIV positive patients might have to fork out 15,000 US dollars per person per year compared with the current 80 US dollars. Earlier a scuffle broke out between the protesters and police as some officers tried to seize banners and placards. Despite police presence the protesters were chanting slogans calling on the Malaysian government to abandon the talks. Economists in the country however say the protesters
are politicizing the matter and pointed out that the trade deals would
create a bigger market and trading bloc which would contribute to Early into the protest, the police sprayed chemical irritants at the crowd to force them to disperse. While ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item 3 ‘Don’t Sign FTA with EU’ A coalition of NGOs are calling for a halt to Malaysia-EU negotiations on trade. Calling themselves Gabungan Rakyat Membantah FTA
(GRMFTA), they want the government to immediately halt talks with the
EU delegation who are in The movement, according to spokesperson Y Kohila, also wants the Malaysian government to make public, studies done on the impact of such FTA agreements. GRMFTA, she said, believes that the country would suffer economic devastation if it went ahead with the agreements and has called instead for an open dialogue on crucial issues of national interest which are listed in their memorandum to the federal government. Kohila said under the FTA, the EU stands to gain
financially and economically in all aspects at the expense of She claimed She cited, as an example, Latin American countries which had signed the FTA with US and which were now facing the harsh realities of an economic collapse. She said most trading commodities are heavily
subsidised by the She said based on their past FTAs, the EU FTAs
would exacerbate the existing economic crises and prevent The Malaysia-EU FTA is expected to help open She said GRMFTA list of concerns includes the FTA’s impact on Malaysian farmers and food security and the country’s ability to move up the value chain. They are also concerned about the FTA’s impact on health services and on environmental, social, financial and other regulations. She said some 500 supporters are aiming to hand over the GRMFTA memorandum detailing their concerns to International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed and the EU delegation.
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