KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 21): Bantah TPPA, a coalition of NGOs opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), hopes the roundtable discussion next week featuring Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will succeed in getting the Malaysian government to pull out from the negotiations on the agreement.

At a press conference today, Bantah TPPA secretariat arm Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM) announced that Mahathir will deliver the keynote address at the discussion on Aug 26 and 27.

"We hope that the discussion at the roundtable will be taken on as a national position," said MTeM chief executive officer Mohd Nizam Mahshar.

The controversial trans-border trade partnership is currently being negotiated by 12 countries led by the United States. The other nations are Malaysia, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Peru, Vietnam, Mexico, Canada and Japan.

Mahathir is against Malaysia signing the agreement, saying previous trade agreements signed by Malaysia had not brought benefits.

Malaysia has bilateral agreements with nine of the 12 countries involved in the TPPA talks but the past agreements provide equal market access based on the country's developmental capacity.

Nizam said discussions at the roundtable will focus on fine-tuning the red lines and problematic areas in current negotiations which is expected to be wrapped up in the final leg at Brunei next week.

"The roundtable will be last attempt to stop the government from going ahead with the deal but if the government maintains its decision to sign the TPPA then Bantah will continue to exert pressure," he said.

Last week, the International Trade and Industries Ministry (MITI) had arranged for a special cabinet meeting after the civil society movement and opposition parties rejected the TPPA, insisting that the sovereignty of the nation is under threat as the deal is being brokered in "secrecy".

Confident that the opposition to TPPA was strong enough to compel MITI, which is spearheading the negotiations, into organising a cabinet briefing, Nizam said Bantah will continue its work until the deal is suspended.

MTEM trustee Rizal Faris said that a "third force" made of civil society groups have emerged since the 13th general election to effectively tackle these issues.

He added that the time is right to compel the government into setting up a platform to look into "economic threats" such as the TPPA.

"Just like the National Security Council which is there to counter terrorism, there should an economic fence to guard us from these types of veiled threats," said Rizal.

In order to muster support for the movement, Bantah is also organising a protest march to the US Embassy on Friday at 2.15pm.