KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia would make a "good addition" to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which could be a new model to boost regional trade, said US Ambassador to Malaysia James Keith.

Speaking to reporters at a media roundtable in conjunction with his impending departure from the country, Keith, expressing his personal views, said Malaysia would need to discuss this with the other members of TPP, which comprises eight countries, namely original members Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, with new members US, Australia, Peru and Vietnam.

"The Malaysian government had indicated that there is some interest," he said. "It will have to see if it would work out to be in favour of Malaysia's national interests."

When asked whether this meant US-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks had come to a halt, Keith said under the new Obama administration, three previous bilateral agreements were before the US Congress for ratification.

"The schedule for this depends on a number of variables, but the Obama administration has said it's committed to concluding all those already-negotiated agreements," he said. "However, Malaysia is still pending negotiations as another round (of talks) has not been scheduled.

"For the future, we are shifting our focus to the TPP because we think this is where we can make the most progress in increasing trade volumes, thereby creating jobs and increasing the standard of living for all member countries."

Keith also said Malaysia would not be "starting from scratch" in terms of previous bilateral talks with the US and that "many chapters of bilateral FTA talks" had been worked on.  

He added that after a meeting among all eight TPP members later this month, the US would send a senior trade representation officer to hold discussions with Malaysian officials about the opportunities from the US perspective.

"Countries will have to think about getting in early to maximise one's own influence," he said in a response to whether it would be preferable for countries to enter the agreement sooner rather than later.

"However, any country that signs up for this, Malaysia included, will be taking on serious ambitious efforts to ensure market access and trade liberalisation steps are undertaken in order to achieve our mutual goal, which is to increase trade flows and increase job creations," he said, adding that this was also from an American perspective.

"We see TPP as a prelude to more active involvement from Asia-Pacific members over the life of this agreement," he said. "TPP makes sense for America, as we are trying to find ways to ensure we increase trade volume. Malaysia will have to make the same evaluation and come up with the same conclusion, going forward only if it serves Malaysia's interests."

With regard to US-Malaysia ties in specific, he said the success of such ties depended on boundaries as defined by people-to-people relations. "We need to work on identifying more common ground between our people," he said.

From an Asean perspective, Keith said the US was interested in developing ties with Southeast Asia as it wanted to help solidify the market of 600 million people in the region and that issues of market access were key.

"We're working with the Asean secretariat to have an ambassador from the US in Jakarta; this is a tangible embodiment of our increased commitment to the institution," he said. "As a collective entity, Asean is more attractive in terms of trade prospects and market power."

He added that in the long term, countries needed to "resist the temptation to reach for protectionism" as all countries were closely inter-related.

On the challenges of TPP, Keith said countries needed to think about "short-term pain for long-term gain" and that it was not easy to take on vested interests of all parties involved.

"However, with regard to trade agreements, we will not be making any demands. It is up to Malaysia to address its trade partners and explain how fast and how far it's willing to go to continue to be at the cutting edge," he said.

Keith, who was sworn in 2007 as the US ambassador to Malaysia, will be departing for Kabul, Afghanistan in mid-May 2010 where he will serve the US government as assistant chief of mission there in addition to several other senior staff members.

"The temptation to try to recapture the past, while understandable, is not something governments can deliver on," he said, adding it was necessary for countries to keep moving forward in order to keep up with its peers.