TPP is for people

Friday 7th December 2012 1 Comment

The Trans Pacific Partnership will help build more successful communities, says BusinessNZ.

Speaking at the Trans Pacific Partnership Forum in Auckland today, BusinessNZ Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly said the TPP has the potential to raise living standards around New Zealand.

“This trade agreement goes beyond the 20th Century approach of simply seeking to reduce tariffs and border restrictions.

“It recognises the fact that industry now relies on complex supply and value chains involving producers in many different locations and countries. New Zealand is deeply involved in many international value chains and the TPP will enable more New Zealand businesses to trade more effectively in more countries, and that means increased growth and more jobs for New Zealanders.

“The particular value of the Trans Pacific Partnership is that it involves many of the fastest growing economies on earth. Economic growth in the Asia Pacific region is surging and the TPP will help unlock that growth for New Zealand’s benefit.

“It’s appropriate that New Zealand’s negotiators are focused on protecting and advancing our interests including public health, intellectual property, the environment, and the Treaty of Waitangi, and success in these areas will mean a high-quality trade deal that is sustainable in the long term,” Mr O’Reilly said.

Comments from our readers

On 8 December 2012 at 11:26 am Xris said:

The TPPA will transfer sovereignty from the individual governments to the corporate sector Corporations could challenge laws that protect labour, consumers, the environment or food safety if they interfere with corporate profits The agreement creates private international tribunals to hear cases run by corporate trade lawyers who serve as judges and would be empowered to order governments to pay unlimited amounts in fines It would extend pharmaceutical patents that keep competitors out of the market and allow pharmaceutical companies to keep costs high and limit poorer nations' capacity to afford life-saving generic medicines It shields foreign investment capital from domestic laws, essentially deregulating big finance even further at a time when there are calls for more regulation It will also undermine internet privacy rights by forcing service providers to hand over private internet data without private safeguards and restrict internet freedom of speech by criminalising some web activities that are now considered commonplace