Thursday, February 4, 2016

TPPA and my usually uninformed thoughts

Let us be honest, the government and the proponents of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement tried to foist on us a deal that is meant to be about free trade, but is in reality about the rights of international corporations, Big Business, to exploit the vulnerable. There are already no borders for Big Business. They shift profits from countries with higher taxation regimes to countries with no or less taxation. They lean on governments for concessions, threatening to take their business away if they don't get the special deals they demand. Free Trade deals are done between countries, as it was done between New Zealand and China, and is getting done between New Zealand and other Asian countries. These may, or posibles may not, have huge economic benefits for the countries involved. The China deal helped to keep the New Zealand economy afloat. We don't need 11 countries to agree to the same deal, which might impact on each country differently. New Zealand certainly didn't get the deal expected, and the benefits are still to be assessed. The power of Big Business, international corporations to influence New Zealand policies in the interest of corporate welfare and not the people of New Zealand is also yet to be assessed. Yet I believe that New Zealand has no choice but go along with the TPPA Agreement. New Zealand can't afford to be excluded from a deal that ties down its trading partners. Once Roger Douglas and the Third Labour Government bought into free market, free trade, libertarian capitalism, there was no turning back. 

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