The Government must learn from its mistakes with the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), not repeat them with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal, the Green Party said today. RCEP is a proposed trade agreement between 14 Asian countries, Australia, and New Zealand. Negotiations were held in Auckland this week. These included a public engagement session at which Trade Minister Todd McClay and officials heard questions and concerns from organisations and business stakeholders. “Comments from the Government suggest...

The New Zealand Government should take controversial and outdated Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions off the table in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade negotiations in Auckland this week, the Green Party said today. Trade Minister Todd McClay has been reported as saying that RCEP should include ISDS provisions, which allow foreign corporations to sue governments in secretive extra-judicial tribunals. “ISDS rules that allow foreign corporations to sue governments have no place in 21st century trade deals,” Green...

Cutting the timeframe the Select Committee has to consider public submissions on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) from four weeks to five days shows the National Government never intended to take peoples’ opinions on the TPPA seriously, the Green Party said today. “John Key always said New Zealanders would get a say on the TPPA but now his backbench MPs have exposed what a sham that really was,” Green Party trade spokesperson Kennedy Graham said. “The so-called consultation over...

Yet another economic study has found the benefits of the TPPA have been overstated, the Green Party said today. Ian Harrison, the lead economist at Tailrisk Economics has added his voice to a growing chorus of experts who are questioning the modelling and benefits of the TPPA trade agreement. Harrison has found that the total benefits of the TPPA to New Zealand’s economy are likely to be in the order of $135 million a year, or about .04 percent of...

The latest critique of the TPPA, as an old fashioned agreement inconsistent with human rights, is a timely warning that the signing of the deal in Auckland today is not in the interests of New Zealanders, the Green Party said. United Nations Human Rights Council Independent Expert Professor Alfred de Sayas has issued a statement explaining how the ‘outdated’ TPPA is ‘fundamentally flawed and should not be signed or ratified unless provision is made to guarantee the regulatory space of...

The Government must be 100 percent clear with New Zealanders about whether it’s preparing to cave in to US pressure over extending patent protections in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) that would make biologic medicines more expensive, the Green Party said. Reports from the USA suggest the pharmaceutical industry is pushing the US Government to force Australia and New Zealand to accept a longer patent period that would raise the cost of medicines, before the deal is signed on...

The Green Party is asking the Government to release information about what trade-offs it made and what the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will cost, following a new expert economic analysis that shows how the National Government has overstated the benefits while ignoring the costs. A paper prepared by economists for the New Zealand Law Foundation found that ‘the extent of economic gains is likely to be far lower than predicted and costs far higher.’ Costs may include environmental degradation,...

The Government will sign away the power to do what’s needed to prevent climate change and protect the environment when it signs the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), the Green Party said today. A new expert environmental analysis of the TPPA by Simon Terry, Executive Director of the Sustainability Council of New Zealand, finds that ‘the environment is a casualty’ under the TPPA, because governments can be sued by multinational corporations for environmental regulations such as changes to the Emissions...

New expert analysis of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) shows that it will take power away from Māori, the Green Party said today. The analysis criticises a lack of consultation with Māori and shows how the TPPA limits the ability of tangata whenua to exercise control over their own affairs because it transfers power from the government, which has obligations to Māori, to multinational corporations, which don’t. It finds that the TPPA’s intellectual property chapter will ‘make it more...

The New Zealand Government must halt its free trade discussions with Saudi Arabia after the latest in a long line of very public human rights atrocities. Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said that New Zealand was sending a distressing signal by continuing to negotiate for a free trade agreement giving preferential treatment to Saudi Arabia while they continued to execute people, often with the flimsiest of evidence. “When you have a free trade agreement with a country, you’re giving that...