Not So Free Trade Deals

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, is the successor to the now defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership after the withdrawal of the United States last year. Malaysia is one of the signatory of the CPTPP but Dato Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar has some reservations. He is President of the National Human Rights Society and recently wrote an op-ed outlining how multilateral trade pacts like the CPTPP can have negative implications for human rights and why free trade deals are not always free.