4 February 2016

TPPA clashes with human rights and international law

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Nations Human Rights Council Independent Expert Professor Alfred de Sayas has issued a statement explaining how the ‘outdated’ TPPA is ‘fundamentally flawed and should not be signed or ratified unless provision is made to guarantee the regulatory space of States.’

“The TPPA is not the kind of trade agreement that we need in the 21st century because it is likely to make it harder, not easier, to fix the big problems facing the world like human rights and climate change,” Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said.

“Trade is good when it also benefits people and protects the environment – but it’s clear that the TPPA is for corporations, not people, and is likely to make climate change worse.

“The UN Independent Expert is clear that trade is not an end in itself, and if we’re trading away the right to act on human rights violations and climate change problems then the trade isn’t worth it.

“The TPPA isn’t really about trade, it’s about entrenching new rules to benefit multinational corporations and control how democratic governments can and can’t do things in the interest of their citizens.

“The types of Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in the TPPA are outdated. The European Union has said it wouldn’t agree to any agreement with TPPA-style ISDS provisions.

“It’s far from over when it comes to the TPPA because there’s no guarantee the US Congress will agree to it and ratification still has to go through the New Zealand Parliament. The Green Party will continue to oppose the TPPA and advance a positive alternative vision of how world trade should be,” said Mr Shaw.

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