KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition members of Parliament have again questioned why the parliamentary caucus on the US reciprocal tariffs convened only today, a month after the Malaysia-United States Reciprocal Trade Agreement (ART) was signed.
Putrajaya member of Parliament Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said the caucus was intended to facilitate discussions before the agreement was finalised, not after.
“Since the agreement is completed and signed, the original intention of forming the caucus — which was for both the opposition and the government to provide input to the ministry and the Cabinet — has already passed.
“It was not brought to the caucus, not to Parliament and it was immediately signed,” he told a press conference while the Dewan Rakyat sitting was on its lunch break, here, today.
The opposition compared the actions of this government to the previous government where meetings on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) were held 15 times and were brought to Parliament and debated for three days before it was signed.
Radzi advised the government to not rush in matters concerning the sovereignty of the nation.
On May 5 this year, the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) had already agreed to meet opposition members to discuss the United States’ reciprocal tariffs, Radzi said.
Radzi, who is also the Perikatan Nasional information chief, said that Miti only engaged them with a brief meeting over lunch.
“What we wanted was a caucus to see the draft of the agreement with the government and the opposition to ensure that our sovereignty is protected,” he said.
The opposition sent five names for the caucus meeting, namely: Razdi, Tangga Batu MP Bakri Jamaluddin, Bachok MP Mohd Syahir Che Sulaiman, Kubang Pasu MP Datuk Dr Ku Abd Rahman Ku Ismail, and Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal.
At a press conference happening simultaneously at another location at Parliament after the first caucus meeting, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz has urged MPs to focus on the broader outcomes of the ART.
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