Third World Conditions Advocated by TPPA

"The Transpacific Partnership Agreement should be rejected because it includes proposals for privatising water" said Heather Marion Smith, Local Government Spokesperson for Democrats for Social Credit.

Ms Smith observed that the countries negotiating the agreement (the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, and Malaysia) are meeting in Vietnam next week.

“By now, most countries have finalised their negotiating positions, but they are being kept secret.

"Developed countries adopted public ownership of water supplies around 1900 as a part of public health initiatives, and to avoid the inefficiencies of the private providers. Apart from Britain and France, only third world countries have privatised water supplies to any great degree.

"Article 24 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which New Zealand is a signatory, specifies that the state must ensure that children have access to clean water. Privatising water would be contrary to that, as private companies aim to maximise profits, not the welfare of the people.

"In Britain, private water providers have a high credit rating, so they load all the debt from their other businesses onto the water supplier to get better interest rates, and also end up getting the customers of their water supply to subsidise their other operations.

"In most parts of France they use Public Private Partnerships, but in areas where the water supply is publicly controlled the water is almost 60% cheaper than where there are PPPs.

"In the countries negotiating the TPPA there is little or no public support for privatising water, but a small number of companies are hoping to use secret international discussions to override the democratic process.

"That is neither right nor reasonable, and New Zealand Democrats for Social Credit totally oppose the idea" concluded Ms Smith.

ENDS

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