May 22, 2017
TPP rethink opportunity not taken
Labour MP Kelvin Davis says he can still see no argument for signing up to the Trans Pacific Partnership.
President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the agreement on trade and services, but New Zealand and Japan are leading a push on the fringes of this week's APEC summit in Vietnam to get the other 11 countries to sign on to the original document.
That means concessions made to suit US demands on pharmaceuticals and intellectual property will remain, without any better access to US markets.
Mr Davis says Labour opposed the deal with the US and it still opposes it in its present form.
"The big thing were were concerned about was the lack of rangatiratanga, that you could have overseas companies dictating to governments, we don't believe that's something we should allow to happen. Maybe here's an opportunity to negotiate that out of TPP but I think it's basically a photocopy of the last one with USA twinked out of it," he says.
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