VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKL #0678/01 1040809
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 140809Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6387
INFO RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

UNCLAS KUALA LUMPUR 000678 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USTR FOR B. WEISEL AND J. JENSEN 
USDOC FOR 4430/MAC/EAP/BAKER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD EINV MY
SUBJECT: MEET THE FTA NEGOTIATORS:  PART I 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary and introduction:  Many of Malaysia's lead 
negotiators for the different FTA chapters took part in our 
Trade and Investment Framework (TIFA) discussions, but others 
are new faces.  Econ counselor and econoffs are calling on 
all of the new negotiators to take their measure in advance 
of the negotiation.  Following are sketches from the first 
three calls.  Others will follow septel. 
 
Services 
-------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Dr. Sarinder Kumari, Director of Multilateral 
Trade Policy and Negotiations at the Ministry of 
International Trade and Industry (MITI) will be Malaysia's 
lead negotiator for the services chapter.  She goes by her 
first name of Sarinder.  Sarinder earned her MA in Economics 
from George Washington University and her Phd. from a 
Malaysian university.  She is Malaysia's lead for services in 
the WTO and knows her U.S. counterparts in Geneva.  She 
participated in the negotiations on Malaysia's Economic 
Cooperation Agreement (ECA) with Japan and characterizes 
those negotiations as "tough." 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Sarinder said Malaysia would have problems with a 
negative list approach for services.  She argued that it 
should not matter whether there was a negative or a positive 
list as long as liberalization increased and both sides 
benefited.  She suggested that Malaysia's aversion to a 
negative list is rooted in the insecurity it feels as the 
smaller and less developed economy in the negotiations. 
Malaysia would want to maintain control over the pace of 
liberalization in its market and could best do that through 
an incremental approach working from a positive list.  She 
stressed that Malaysia has not accepted a negative list in 
any of its previous negotiations, noting that it took 
Malaysia a year and half to convince Japan to accept a 
positive list approach.  She indicated an interest in 
emergency safeguard measures for services.  Asked if she had 
a specific model for safeguards, she said "no", but noted 
that there were several papers circulating on the subject in 
Geneva, including one produced by an UNCTAD economist.  She 
said that in the Japan ECA, they dealt with safeguards by 
creating a committee to study the issue. 
 
Transparency, Trade Remedies and Legal Issues - and 
Competition Policy 
--------------------------------------------- ---------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Rohana Abdul Malek (goes by Rohana) of the Attorney 
General's Chambers (AGC) has been identified as a lead 
negotiator for three areas:  transparency, trade remedies and 
legal issues.  Azailiza Mohd. Ahad (goes by Azailiza), 
Director of the International Division of the AGC, may also 
become involved.  Azailiza told econoffs that the Attorney 
General had directed her to stay closely engaged with the 
negotiations and had increased her staffing to accommodate 
the increased workload.  Rohana has been involved in 
Malysia's FTA negotiations with New Zealand and Australia, 
although mostly behind the scenes.  Rohana and Azailiza both 
were involved in drafting the Cabinet decision paper seeking 
approval to launch the FTA negotiations, and Rohana 
participated in the March 6-7 pre-FTA rollout bilateral 
meetings in Washington.  Azailiza previously told econ 
counselor that she had studied a number of U.S. FTA's while 
working on the Cabinet paper. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Azailiza observed that the Malaysian government 
would need to change its current practices to meet the 
requirements of the transparency chapter.  She also 
volunteered that the government would have to "make up its 
mind"on the competition policy law that is currently being 
drafted.  She hinted that different approaches to competition 
policy are under consideration, but would not provide 
details. 
 
Trade Remedies 
-------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Norzita Abu Samah (goes by Norzita) Legal Advisor in 
the Trade Practices Division of MITI will be Malaysia's lead 
negotiator for trade remedies.  Econoffs met her along with 
her Director, Wan Hasmah Wan Mohd (goes by Hasmah).  Norzita 
has participated in Malaysia's FTA negotiations with New 
Zealand and Australia.  She is one of about four lawyers at 
MITI. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Norzita and Hasmah related to econoffs four 
different cases of U.S. anti-dumping actions against 
Malaysia; the oldest from 20 years ago.  Nevertheless, 
Norzita indicated that she did not foresee her chapter 
becoming a difficult one.  She speculated that it might be 
one of the first to be completed. 
 
Welcome to the Big Time 
----------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Comment:  All the officials econoffs met in these 
introductory meetings professed to be impressed by the 
resources the U.S. will bring to the negotiating table. 
Norzita, for example, almost gushed when informing Hasmah 
that "the U.S. has an entire agency (USITC) just to deal with 
trade remedies!"  This prompted suggestions, such as 
Sarinder's arguments against a negative list, that the U.S. 
must be understanding of Malaysia's needs as the smaller and 
weaker partner.  U.S. negotiators can expect this be a common 
theme as they engage with their Malaysian counterparts. 
LAFLEUR