Jane Kelsey on the TPPA text

TPP: Govt has done 'spin job' - Kelsey

The just-published text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership shows New Zealanders will lose out, according to Professor Jane Kelsey who has been a leading critic of the deal.

Radio NZ,

6 November, 2015

The government released the legal text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on behalf of the deal's 12 member countries last night.

The government has said the trade agreement will boost New Zealand's economy by $2.7 billion a year by 2030 but, until now, the public has been kept in the dark as to what the agreement entailed.

Listen to Jane Kelsey on Morning Report ( 5 min 52 sec )

But Prof Kelsey said the government had been doing a "pretty good spin job" having read the text.

She told Morning Report most of the concerns raised over the last five years remained, in particular in relation to foreign investors and their rights to sue the government.

"There's a real legitimacy crisis about these offshore tribunals because the judges, in inverted commas, are actually practising investment lawyers in many cases, and there are still no effective conflict of interest rules in the text as it's been released."

However Prof Kelsey said there was still a long way to go before anything was finalised.

"There will be also be a lot of pressure on parties like the Labour Party to understand that their five bottom lines haven't in fact been met in this text.

"And that they need to take a strong position in saying that they don't agree with the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement now that they've seen the details."

She said it would probably be at least two years before New Zealand signed off and further delays could yet come from the US.

"We have an additional prospect that the US will come back and say it won't bring the agreement into force with New Zealand until New Zealand has changed our laws and policies to the US understanding of what's required."

Lori Wallach of the Washington-based advocacy group Public Citizen told Morning Report the text showed New Zealand had made a lot of sacrifices for little return.

"The balance of really having gotten not much of anything as far as market access and dairy, and having exposed your programmes that make your medicine more affordable or that have superior privacy protections, or better internet freedom rules than we have in the US."

The agreement has 30 chapters and associated annexes and over 6000 pages of text.

Trade Minister Tim Groser released a statement on Thursday evening including a link to the text.

He said he was pleased the public would now finally be able to thoroughly review the full text of the TPP before it was signed by governments.

Work on the legal verification of the text would continue in coming weeks, he said.

"Understanding the legal obligations of the TPP will require careful analysis of all documents, given the inter-relationship between many provisions in the agreement."

The government has also released extra information on the estimated economic benefits of the TPP for New Zealand, Mr Groser said.

It will put out a legal summary of the agreement when that work is completed.

The agreement's 12 member countries are: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.