KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Hamim Samuri, has denied that the government only studied the impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement on bumiputera small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
"The cost-benefit study undertaken by the ministry took into consideration the pact's impact on all SMEs in the country," he told Bernama at Parliament lobby here today.
Hamim said this when asked on the statement by Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang) at a press conference asking the government to study the impact of the TPP pact on all SMEs and not to focus only on the bumiputera SMEs.
The TPP is a proposed regional free-trade agreement. As of 2014 twelve countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region have participated in negotiations on the TPP: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.-- Bernama