Fresh TPP not perfect but backed
New Zealand and 10 other nations have settled their differences and are set to sign a new version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact in March.
NZ First has pledged to back the TPP deal, also supported by National and Labour.
After two days of talks in Tokyo, the 11 nations ironed out the four unresolved issues that remained after negotiations last November.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week about preserving the country’s cultural industry.
The TPP is now officially known as the ‘‘Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership’’, (CPTPP) after the United States pulled out of the agreement in January 2017.
The remaining countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. These nations make up about 13.5 per cent of world GDP (gross domestic product).
Trade Minister David Parker confirmed the deal would be signed in Chile on March 8.
‘‘The CPTPP will provide New Zealand exporters with preferential access for the first time into Japan, the world’s third-largest economy and our fifth-largest export market,’’ Parker said.
‘‘The CPTPP is even more important to signatory countries given current threats to the effectiveness of the [World Trade Organisation] and rising protectionism in many parts of the world.
‘‘Before the agreement is ratified, New Zealanders will be given the opportunity to better understand what it means for them, their families and the country. We are committed to ensuring this is done in a fair and accessible way,’’ Parker said.
Ardern said the deal was far from ideal but had been improved.
‘‘This is not a perfect deal but we’ve improved it vastly, in our view, from where it was before,’’ Ardern said.
The last sticking points involved Canadian protection of its cultural industries and labour protections in Vietnam.
Labour opposed the TPP in opposition but after negotiating some changes to controversial Investor State Dispute (ISDS) clauses, which allow companies to sue countries, now supports the CPTPP in government.
Companies will no longer be able to sue the Government over contract decisions.
Ardern said the new agreement was a ‘‘damned sight better’’ than what was previously offered.
Ratifying the deal will not require a parliamentary vote but will require implementation legislation. A parliamentary process involving select committees will likely take place for both ratification and the implementation legislation.
NZ First leader Winston Peters yesterday said his party, which is in coalition with Labour, would back the agreement.
‘‘This is a deal we can support,’’ Peters said, praising the efforts of Parker.
‘‘We were never going to support the sellout of our sovereignty, an investor disputes procedure that wasn’t fair, all those things have changed now, so we can support it.’’
The Greens, which support the Government in a confidence and supply agreement, are still opposed.
‘‘We still don’t believe there are sufficient safeguards for people and the environment that would enable us to support the deal,’’ Green Party leader James Shaw said.
The Government will be looking to pass any changes to foreign investment rules before ratifying the deal, as its ability to do so will be limited after the CPTPP is ratified.
Fully 22 provisions of the original TPP agreement have been suspended, up from 20 frozen in November last year, including controversial pharmaceutical changes.