Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia –
U.S. Government officials met on October 10 in
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, with their
Malaysian Government counterparts for the third meeting under the United
States-Malaysia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), which was
signed in May 2004.
Malaysia
is America’s
10th largest trading partner, with two-way trade totaling nearly $40 billion during 2004.
During these productive meetings, led by Assistant U.S. Trade
Representative for Southeast Asia and Pacific Affairs
Barbara Weisel and Secretary General of
Malaysia’s
Ministry of International Trade and Industry Dato Sidek Hassan, the two sides
continued their detailed discussion on progress in addressing outstanding
bilateral trade issues as well as coordination on regional and multilateral
issues. The wide-ranging bilateral
agenda covered priority trade issues for both countries, including improving
market access in the automotive, financial services, and agriculture sectors,
strengthening the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights,
upgrading customs procedures, and addressing investment concerns. Malaysia and the United States also
discussed cooperation and trade
capacity building projects that will help further our countries’ interests in
strengthening our trade relationship, including areas such as customs, IPR
enforcement, and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements.
The United
States and
Malaysia also
discussed coordination on APEC and WTO issues.
Malaysia
is continuing its active and constructive participation in the
Doha round negotiations, and
U.S. officials
appreciated the opportunity to discuss both countries’ commitment to an
ambitious result in the Doha
round.
The United
States concluded the TIFA with
Malaysia last
year under the Enterprise for ASEAN
Initiative (EAI), which was announced by President George W. Bush in October
2002. As part of this initiative,
the U.S. Government is seeking to further strengthen
U.S. trade and
investment ties with ASEAN, both as a region and bilaterally. The EAI offers the prospect of
negotiating FTAs, such as our proposed free trade agreement with
Thailand, with
ASEAN members that have bilateral TIFAs with the
United States,
are WTO members, and are committed to economic reforms and openness.
The first meeting under the United States-Malaysia TIFA took
place in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, in February this
year and the second meeting occurred in May in
Washington,
D.C.
The two sides agreed to meet again early next year to continue the TIFA
discussions. ###
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