Fletcher Tabuteau MP

Spokesperson for Trade and Commerce
1 NOVEMBER 2016

Key Reveals He’ll Sell Us Out for TPPA

Prime Minister John Key has revealed he is ready and only too willing to sell this country out to get the TPPA through, says New Zealand First.

“Mr Key is reported as saying if New Zealand is asked to give more we would expect to get more. New Zealanders should beware. He will ‘do a deal with the devil’ just to get the TPPA through for a notch on his belt,” says Spokesperson on Trade Fletcher Tabuteau.

“He sold it to New Zealand as a trade deal but it is much more than that. In its present form it has serious consequences for us.

“New Zealand has got little out of it. Primary industries should have been a huge winner, but only got crumbs. Take tariffs - they are years away and our exports are still limited by quotas in many countries and undermined by subsidies given to our competitors in these markets.

“New Zealand has learned to our cost that axing tariffs in one go left us with nothing to negotiate.

“To ‘give more’ simply means we will let the rest of the world walk over us. They will buy us up and take us over.

“Mr Key would do well to elaborate and tell New Zealanders what exactly he is planning to concede in future. This is a pandora’s box wrapped up and hidden in backroom secrets.

“This government should be holding firm in future negotiations.

“The TPPA has sold us short on Pharmac’s status, and we are likely to pay more for medicines. We will be vulnerable to paying millions of dollars in compensation to international corporations when they decide our laws might hurt their profits.”

ENDS

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