Make TPP Agreement documents public

"Democrats for Social Credit urge those negotiating the TPP Agreement between New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Singapore, Chile, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia to make the documents available to the general public," says John Ring, Democrats for Social Credit spokesperson on Foreign Affairs. "In 2006 the World Trade Organisation decided that none of its documents should be confidential, and there is no reason why other trade talks should not follow the same principle."

Mr Ring noted that the next round of talks begins in Auckland on Monday.

"The US trade representatives are talking about 'a treaty for the 21st century', but the US usually insists on conditions that deprive countries of the flexibility to deal with the type of issues that actually arise in modern times. For example, they normally require that movements of capital between the countries be conducted 'freely and without delay', which would probably rule out Financial Transaction Taxes, Foreign Transaction Surcharges, and the type of capital controls that Malaysia used to shield itself from the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990” he said..

"The recent financial crisis should have made it clear to everyone that the US financial sector is dysfunctional, so we shouldn't enter any agreement that ties our economy to it. It is also unclear whether they are asking for investors to be able to sue governments in international tribunals or not. Like many congressmen, US President Obama appears to be opposed to that, but many influential people in the US administration favour it. Part of the argument for that is to avoid corruption, but New Zealand and Singaporean courts have a very high reputation for being free of corruption. International tribunals would have a greater risk of corruption.

“Pharmac is almost certain to be undermined, so medicines become unaffordable for many.

"Copyright laws could dramatically change.

"The only products the USA has significant protection on are sugar, dairy products, footwear and clothing so there is nothing in the deal for NZ if it doesn't include dairy, and the US Congress won't approve that anyway" concluded Mr Ring.

The Democrats for Social Credit are members of NZ Not For Sale, a coalition opposing the treaty. In 2008 the Party made a submission to MFAT opposing the treaty.

ENDS

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