8 April 2008

Media Release:

Free Trade – New Zealand gives up the fight for an independent economy

Yesterday’s signing of a free-trade agreement with China marks the end of the New Zealand’s attempts to develop a strong, diverse, independent economy.

The government has thrown in the towel.

The deal effectively outsources our manufacturing needs to China and makes us more dependent than ever on unsustainable farming practices and the production of protein-based products with large carbon footprints.

We are further from our markets than any other country and more vulnerable than any other to global warming (which threatens the economic base of current farming practices) and the even increasing price of fuel which will increasingly render long range exports less economic.

To top it off New Zealand has turned its back on Chinese workers and their struggles for independent trade unions. Our government has given a slap in the face to the five million Chinese children under the age of 15 who work long hours for low pay. We have turned a blind eye to human rights abuses and the struggle of the Tibetans under China’s oppression.

New Zealand workers and Chinese workers are simply unacknowledged collateral damage while the winners are Chinese companies and international corporations such as Fonterra.

Giving trade preferences to a brutal regime makes the government complicit and even dependent on the human rights abuses which are the speciality of the Chinese regime.

It’s been a shameful day.

ENDS

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