Posts
Key
talks big at UN, walks backwards in NZ
3
October, 2015
John
Key’s big moment at the UN to
lecture the world on Syria and Climate Change
is all very good, but when you actually look at what he is doing in
NZ, it is pitiful.
Key
only moved on letting in more Syrian refugees when he was forced to
by public opinion backlash. He lied to NZ about re-invading Iraq
before the election, and as soon as he won it he was sending in SAS
to help target ISIS for US airstrikes under the prettiness of
‘training’ the Iraqi Army. We are siding with a butcher like
Assad to help kill a bunch of religious fanatics who are funded by
Saudi Arabia, the same Saudi Arabia John Key is so desperate to sign
a free trade deal with.
Key
is so conflicted on Syria he may as well be a third front of war all
on his own.
As
for climate change, his policy is slashing research into climate
change…
The
logic of sacking scientists researching greenhouse gases is being
questioned, in light of the government’s insistence the solution to
rising emissions will be found through scientific innovation.
…and
this at a time when Scientists are witnessing g real time shut down
of vital biosphere functions because of climate change…
…and
why should that worry us?
As
the planet super heats because of the CO2 we pump into the
atmosphere, more and more heat is trapped. That heat pushes
temperatures up, those temperatures melt ice at the polar caps. This
melting ice does two things. Firstly it reduces the amount of white
space on the planet that simply bounces heat back into space so it
ends up quickening the heating process and more importantly it puts
more fresh water into the oceans. As heat build, frozen methane
trapped on the ocean floor and in Siberia is released in massive
amounts, this rapidly melts remaining glaciers desalinating ocean
conveyor pumps, particularly in the Labrador and
Irminger Seas around southern Greenland which shut down the flow of
heat from the tropics north which in turn plunges the Northern
hemisphere into a new ice age.
Key
talks big at the UN about Syria and Climate Change yet his walk at
home is taking giant steps backwards.
Breakthrough
on TPP deal
TPP deal could be announced today after Atlanta talks extended a day
3
October, 2015
A
Trans Pacific Partnership deal could be announced as soon as today if
negotiators clear the final hurdles, including the biggest remaining
one involving dairy import limits.
Prime
Minister John Key left New York yesterday but Trade Minister Tim
Groser remains in Atlanta at the talks, which were pushed back a day
- a sign the agreement is verging on a breakthrough.
"I'm
pretty optimistic it will come together [this weekend] - 80-20,"
said Alan Wolff, a former US negotiator who now leads the American
National Foreign Trade Council, a commercial association.
Trade
ministers from 12 countries are negotiating the controversial pact,
which would cut trade barriers and set common standards for 40 per
cent of the world's economy and be the biggest free-trade deal in a
generation.
Talks
began in 2010 but strong public opposition to the deal here centre on
concerns about its impact, such as making pharmaceuticals more
expensive.
Thousands
of people demonstrated in August, many angry that detail of the deal
has been kept secret.
The
last round of talks in Hawaii in July ended with three issues
outstanding: vehicles, dairy and patents on pharmaceuticals.
Key
acknowledged this week the deal fell short on dairy but said
yesterday it was still likely to be "bigger" than the China
Free Trade Agreement, worth $20 billion a year.
It
is understood that Key's team are ready to launch a charm offensive
on the agreement, in response to outspoken TPP critics such as
University of Auckland's Professor Jane Kelsey.
Kelsey
and seven other applicants, are seeking a declaration that Groser
acted unlawfully when he issued a blanket refusal of an Official
Information Act request for information relating to TPP negotiations.
The hearing is taking place in the High Court in Wellington.
Kelsey
is wary of skyrocketing health costs should the TPP go ahead.
"The
stark reality is that any such deal would cost New Zealanders'
lives," Kelsey said yesterday.
Media
reports in the US yesterday said the deal was close and US President
Barack Obama had called Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
to discuss it.
Once
signed, the leaders of the countries involved will have to turn their
attentions to selling the deal domestically after the controversy
over the secrecy of the talks. It will also have to be ratified by
each country's Parliament.
The
Labour Party has said it will not support the TPP unless it meets key
considerations, including allowing future governments to restrict
land sales to foreigners and a meaningful deal for farmers.
If
the deal is not done today, there will be one last chance, at Apec in
the Philippines next month.
This is what minister, Tim Groser was saying in 2011
Trade
Minister Tim Groser says the Government drug buying agency Pharmac is
not up for negotiation in Asia-Pacific free trade talks.
Groser
and the Finance Minister Bill English have just returned from the
Apec annual summit in Hawaii where progress towards the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) free trade talks was discussed with world leaders
including United States President Barack Obama
Nine
countries - the US, Australia, Singapore, Peru, Brunei, Chile,
Vietnam, Malaysia and New Zealand - are negotiating the bloc which
Japan, Mexico and Canada are now hoping to join.
The
US regards Pharmac's monopoly as a barrier to free trade and there
have been concerns the trade deal could weaken the agency's ability
to buy cheap generic drugs.
However,
Groser said today New Zealand had laid down a position which said:
"Our public health system is not up for negotiation or part of
any trade negotiation".
Now he's up for making any compromise to sign up
Groser:
TPP means 'ugly compromises'
3
October, 2015
Trade
Minister Tim Groser says countries deeply immersed in TPP
negotiations understand that dairy has to be resolved to New
Zealand's satisfaction before a deal can be done.
"At
least people understand that this has got to be done and they can't
just ignore our small country because we are small," he told
the Weekend Herald.
He
also extended a goodwill gesture to Labour, saying he respected the
fact it had not taken a position on TPP and that was "perfectly
rational".
Mr
Groser was speaking from Atlanta where ministers of the 12 countries
involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership have extended their meeting
for another 24 hours.
He
said he had spoken to Prime Minister John Key in New York several
times over the past few hours.
And I've got highly confidential but very clear political guidelines from the Prime Minister about what I should be doing.
He
had a team of about 15 with him "working their proverbials off"
around the clock and some of the key stakeholders such as the
chairman of Fonterra, John Wilson and the chairman of Dairy Companies
of New Zealand. He said it was an achievement to get dairy on the
list of the final three issues that had to be dealt with because it
was not there at the Maui ministerial meeting at the end of July.
"I
felt under as intense pressure as I have ever felt in the last 30
years as a New Zealand negotiator because I felt completely and
totally isolated," he said. "Now everyone understands that
New Zealand is not going to be pushed out of this negotiation and the
issues that would push New Zealand out of this negotiation, which is
dairy ... this has got be solved in a way that New Zealand can live
with."
He
said the negotiations were going around the clock and he was just
about to try and get a couple of hours' sleep until he was called for
another session.
He
said it was clear there was a "massive push" to do the
deal.
"It's
got the smell of a situation we occasionally see which is that on the
hardest core issues, there are some ugly compromises out there.
"And
when we say ugly, we mean ugly from each perspective - it doesn't
mean 'I've got to swallow a dead rat and you're swallowing foie
gras.' It means both of us are swallowing dead rats on three or four
issues to get this deal across the line."
The
outstanding issues are dairy, autos, and IP on pharmaceuticals,
especially biologics - medicines made from organisms.
On
the issue of Helen Clark's comments about the TPP - she said it was
unthinkable New Zealand wouldn't be part of the deal - he said she
had added a crucial rider - "provided the deal was good".
And
that was the same position the Government had.
"I
think it has been extremely helpful in terms of uniting New Zealand
that our former Prime Minister has said what she said."
Mr
Groser said he did not take Labour or its leadership for granted on
TPP.
"They
haven't got a position on TPP and I fully respect that and if I were
in their shoes, I wouldn't have a position either because I would say
'I don't know what the deal is.' That is a perfectly rational
position to take."
But
as a point of general principle, what Helen Clark had said was the
essential truth: "Provided we can deliver what makes sense from
an overall New Zealand Inc perspective, it would be a nightmare for
New Zealand to be excluded from it."
If
the deal is not done tomorrow, there will be one last chance, at Apec
in the Philippines in November.
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