Mana News editor Joe Trinder

The TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) will be the largest trade deal in history – involving countries stretching from Chile to Japan, representing 792 million people and accounting for 40 percent of the world economy –but the deal is being done in secret.

Lobbyists from America’s biggest corporations and Wall Street’s biggest banks have been involved but not the New Zealand public. The agenda is to increase profits and pay-outs for company directors but very little for the working class New Zealander unless you believe in trickle-down economics.

New Zealand is a trading Nation and free Trade deals have been lucrative for the New Zealand economy, the problem with the TPPA it has to many non-trade elements involved that it fails to be a free trade agreement but a Trojan horse for New Zealand laws to be designed from Washington not Wellington.

Corporations have demanded international protection when it comes to their intellectual property and other assets. So they’ve been seeking trade rules that secure and extend their patents, trademarks, and copyrights abroad, and protect their global franchise agreements, securities, and loans.

The TPPA won’t  protect consumers, workers, small investors, and the environment, because these interfere with corporations profits. So they’ve been seeking trade rules that allow them to override these protections.

The majority of the deal has been drafted by Wall Street lobbyists and Iwi who signed up to the Treaty of Waitangi have been entirely cut out of the process. The TPPA is inconsistent with article two of our founding national document.

Guarantees to the Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and to the respective families and individuals thereof the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties -Treaty of Waitangi 6th Feb 1840

Anyone believing the TPPA is good for New Zealanders should note the foreign subsidiaries of U.S.-based corporations could just as easily challenge any New Zealand government regulation they claim unfairly diminishes their profits – say, a regulation protecting New Zealand consumers from unsafe products or unhealthy foods, investors from fraudulent securities or predatory lending, workers from unsafe working conditions, taxpayers from another bailout of Wall Street, or the environment from toxic emissions.

The National government says the trade deal will boost New Zealand’s exports yet our primary export agriculture is still to be negotiated and according to the United States Department of Agriculture our GDP will grow marginally at 00.1%  by 2025.

According to the  USDA scenario below by 2025 below New Zealand’s rest of world trade is in decline more than any Nation at  -$125.7 Million especially from our primary industries Meat and Dairy. The TPPA looks more like it will decrease New Zealand’s primary Industry as opposed to being a lucrative trade deal.

In the last round of talks in Hawaii United States, Canada and Japan have all attempted to block New Zealand’s primary industry Agriculture. The TPPA wont increase our GDP if Canadian and Japanese Tariffs stay in force.

The  TPPA  is a Trojan horse that is abhorrent to our sovereignty and offers Wall Street banks a way to eliminate any and all laws and regulations to increase their profits.

1. http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/1692509/err176.pdf