"What the world needs now is more trade and investment flows and not restricted markets. "Malaysia believes that this agreement will help us to further promote our trade and investment agenda and mitigate the challenges of the global economic environment," Mustapa said in a statement. The 10 countries that signed the CPTPP agreement together with Malaysia are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Viet Nam. With the conclusion of the CPTPP, Mustapa said MITI and colleagues from other Ministries and Agencies will now focus the attention on concluding the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiation. "It is our view that both CPTPP and RCEP will serve as building blocks towards a more open and fairer trade and investment regime in the Asia Pacific region,” he said.

Source: New Strait Times March 09, 2018 07:18 UTC