TPPA to be signed on Sunday?

We’ve known for some days that this was a done deal. In a recent poll 96% were opposed.

It appears that Helen Clark was misrepresented in her comments on the deal

TPP on verge of breakthrough?

NZ Herald,

3 October, 2015

Talks by trade ministers involved in the Trans Pacific Partnership have been pushed out by a further day - a sign the agreement is on the verge of a breakthrough.

Prime Minister John Key leaves New York today while Trade Minister Tim Groser remains in Atlanta at the trade talks. Mr Key said those were due to end early this morning but had been pushed out to Saturday (Sunday NZT).

Mr Key said the deal would be worth it, but has recently been talking up the benefits of it non-dairy sectors and warning that it was not as favourable for dairy as other sectors.

"We model the tariff reductions, the change in quota access and all of the other ancillary benefits of free trade agreements. And we know in the case of China, the reduction in tariffs over a period of time were a bit over $100 million. And the other benefits were valued at over $1 billion. TPP is larger than that, even with the current dairy deal."

He said while the Government had a responsibility to do the best it could for the dairy industry, it could not ignore benefits to other industries.

"There will be many other sectors that will be, on the basis we sign TPP, ecstatic about what happens."

Media reports in the United States report that a deal is close and the US President Barack Obama had rung Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to discuss it. Dairy remains the main stumbling block from New Zealand's point of view.

Meanwhile, University of Auckland law professor Jane Kelsey said longer monopolies for big pharmaceutical firms were the main obstacles to signing the deal.

She said future New Zealand governments would have to stump up hundreds of millions of dollars more to Pharmac if the deal went ahead.

Prof Kelsey said health economists believed every added year of protection for biologics would cost New Zealand "many tens of millions of dollars in current spending, and much more in the future as more biologics come on stream."

We’ve known for some days that this was a done deal

BREAKING: Helen Clark misrepresented on TPPA & why Groser is now sucking up to Labour

the Daily Blog,

3 October, 2015

We were all stunned when the mainstream media reported Helen Clark as being in favour of the TPPA…

Former PM Clark backs controversial TPPA trade deal

…well it turns out she is being grossly misrepresented.

TPPA activists contacted Helen through social media, and she gives a completely different version of events…

FACEBOOK CONVERSATION WITH HELEN EARLIER TODAY. IT’S SPIN:

Hi Helen, I along with many others believe you were the best Prime Minister we have had in living memory. You fought for the people and the environment. It’s difficult therefore to reconcile your recent supporting comment regarding TPPA. Were you conned or cajoled into doing this or are you too under the influence of corporate interest groups? Surely you must see what will eventuate for ordinary kiwis if big pharma is allowed to function under Tppa deregulation? Surely you realise that Tppa would lead irrevocably to privatization? Have you switched sides? We are suffering here in New Zealand under John Keys neo liberal govt. He’s slashing services and ruthlessly destroying the education sector where I work, laying the ground for privatization. Do you really want to see our beautiful country turn into the United States? It’s not the kind of success I want in my country. Success for a few at the expense of everyone else is not the New Zealand we grew up in Helen. I hope you do what you can to stop TPPA instead of aiding the neo conservative agenda.

Helen Clark 3:52pm

Helen Clark The original TPP was negotiated and signed when I was PM. As PM I welcomed the opening of negotiations in 2008 to extend the agreement. Read what I said carefully: NZ cannot afford to be excluded from trading blocks and must negotiate for the best deal it can get to secure access for its exports. Opening up access for NZ exporters should not be branded as neoconservative. It’s actually rather important to securing NZ’s economic viability. Etc.

Joanne Donovan 4:08pm

Joanne Donovan Yes I understand your comment and your stance on trade. It’s actually common sense and of course the majority would agree with you. However the TPPA is a very different type of agreement than the one you signed up for. The deregulatory elements within it make it very dangerous especially in the pharmaceutical sector. Many doctors oppose it here as it would open the way for the kinds of price gouging of meds common in the U.S. but unheard of here. Helen Tppa represents profiteering at the expense of our most needy citizens. I am also suprised you gave the comment at all considering it’s the first time you have engaged in domestic politics since your last term. Why did you do that? Now John Key is using that remark to tell skeptics that the great Helen Clarke supports TPPA. It’s a bitter blow for those politicians who are trying to protect New Zealand from corporate exploitation.

Helen Clark 4:09pm

Helen Clark I repeat – look carefully at what I said. I am not responsible for the way media or others spin things.

Joanne Donovan 4:10pm

Joanne Donovan Thanks for your reply and go well 

…Helen has been purposely misquoted by the mainstream media and her most important comment from the official interview “provided the deal was good” seems to have been ignored completely. Tim Groser’s comments this morning where he sucks up to Labour and forewarns of us having to swallow dead rats highlights how awful the reality of the TPPA will be to our economic and political sovereignty just so the Dairy Industry can sell some more bloody cheese and milk to America. Groser needs Labour on board because those dead rats can’t be swallowed without bi-partisan agreement hence Helen Clark getting misquoted to create the impression of her support…

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.

…and what are those dead rats for us? Allowing foreign corporations to dictate domestic policy to us as NZers, allowing American Pharmaceuticals to push up the cost of basic medicines and stopping us from being a sovereign state who can pass our own laws without asking our American Overlords for permission first, and we are going to trade all of this away for a weak dairy deal that Key and Groser will trumpet as a mighty win after they’ve used the media to con us the dairy deal was impossible to get.

We are being played, Helen Clark is being purposely misrepresented and the media are being used as propaganda tools.

You are being lied to, it’s up to you as citizens to decide how far we are willing to go to stop John Key making us the 51st state of America.