“Having started the stock-taking exercise last year, the decision to restart talks may take, at the most, a couple of months,” said Rokas, according to Bernama.
Rokas is to take up a new posting in North Macedonia from Sept 1, after a four-year stint in Malaysia.
Negotiations on the free trade agreement began in October 2010, with eight rounds held until September 2012.
However, the talks stalled following Malaysia’s reservations over palm oil, procurement policies, subsidies and EU’s sustainability clauses.
Rokas said EU-Malaysia trade ties were significant because Europe’s 27-member grouping is a vital source of foreign direct investment “despite the fact that we don’t have a free trade agreement”.
He said both European and Malaysian manufacturers wanted an agreement.
This made a compelling case to restart negotiations on the stalled Malaysia-EU FTA, he said.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim breathed new life into the stalled FTA talks after leading a successful trade and investment mission to Germany in March. He said Malaysia had agreed to rekindle discussions on the trade pact to strengthen bilateral relations and regional integration.
Rokas said he had tried his best to restart negotiations on FTA throughout his four years’ service in the country.
He said EU businesses operating in Malaysia were unanimous in their support for resuming talks. This was backed by the EU industry and the European Chamber of Commerce and Malaysian businesses, including the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers.
“If we restart, we can conclude rapidly. Let’s be serious about it as nobody has time to waste and there are a lot of challenges globally,” he said.
He admitted that there were touchy and sensitive issues between Malaysia and the EU.
“But trust me, countries which negotiated FTAs with the EU saw the benefits at the end of the talks. The resulting FTAs were transformative for their own economies,” he said.
He cited the case of Vietnam, which recorded a one-third increase in the volume and value of trade following its FTA with the EU.
“I foresee that Malaysia’s volume and trade value with the EU could be even higher as the FTA will unleash the potential we both have.
“At the end of the day, everything is flexible and not set in stone,” he said.
According to EU data, bilateral trade with the EU totalled €44.7 billion (RM218.14 billion) in 2023. This made the EU Malaysia’s fourth-largest trading partner after China, Singapore and the US.
Trade between the EU and Malaysia is dominated by industrial products, machinery and appliances.
Besides machinery and appliances, the EU mainly imports animal and vegetable fats and oils, including palm oil, chemical products and optical and photographic instruments, and exports chemical products.
Rokas said Malaysia always remains a very attractive country to invest in for EU companies given its location, highly developed infrastructure, and skilled labour force.
“Morever it is not very expensive,” he said.
The EU’s internal market, being the biggest in the world, comprising 450 million consumers, is extremely beneficial in terms of market access for Malaysian businesses.
‘EU will never ban palm oil’
On palm oil, Rokas said “it is an important commodity for us, with the EU being the third largest export destination for Malaysia after China and India”.
“There has never been a ban on palm oil and there will never be such a ban,” he said, dismissing news reports and media speculation to the contrary.
Other potential areas for further cooperation via an FTA include manufacturing, semiconductors, electrical appliances, commodities, services as well as sustainable industries.
Among major EU companies in Malaysia are Siemens, Braun, Airbus, Infineon, AT&S, Stellantis, Osram, Unilever, Royal Shell, Royal Dutch, and Total Energy.
“We have conveyed the clear wish from the EU to resume negotiations to the investment, trade and industry ministry. So now the ball is in Malaysia’s court and we’re waiting for the ministry to respond to us.
“We are in search of new trusted partnerships around the world and we are looking very much forward to be a close partner throughout Malaysia’s Asean 2025 chairmanship,” he said.
Elsewhere in Asean, Rokas said, the EU concluded an FTA with Singapore in 2019 and Vietnam in 2020, and is likely to conclude one with Indonesia by the end of this year.
“We have two new enthusiastic partners in Thailand and the Philippines with whom we have started negotiating.”
According to him, Malaysia is the only major economy that has not been recently negotiating an FTA with the EU.
“This is a very volatile world. Malaysia is a pocket of stability and it’s a no-brainer that the EU will do its utmost best to improve bilateral trading and investment conditions,” he said.