Last weekend, negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) broke down. Representatives from 12 Pacific nations had met in Hawaii for negotiations that aimed to create the biggest trade agreement ever. For anti-TPPA activists, this delay is a welcome break. But the trade deal is far from finished. The delay is an important opportunity to up the ante in local resistance to the deal. Looking at how and why the talks have stalled can help to understand its political implications locally, and points towards the resistance that will be necessary to defeat it for good.
Why have the talks stalled
In Aotearoa/New Zealand, the grassroots opposition to the TPPA focuses on issues that will affect the majority of working people:
- The TPPA will lead to increased costs to important necessities such as medicines
- The TPPA strengthens the power of international corporations. Democratic processes to regulate against corporations via environmental, health or labour laws are undermined.
These factors will hurt working people in Aotearoa/NZ – but that is not why the NZ government has yet to sign off on the TPPA. For John Key’s government the problem is access to dairy markets. Major countries such as Canada and the US are so far seeking to keep protections for their dairy industries. In New Zealand, dairy is a major industry, and milk a major export. Access to valuable dairy markets in North America is the key gain that the NZ government wants out of the deal, and they are now bargaining hard to get it.
Why this matters
Understanding this helps activists in three ways.
Firstly, this shows who government is working for, and what it hopes to achieve. Some activists have struggled to understand why the NZ government would have anything to do with a deal that will leave the majority of Kiwis worse off. Some then resort to conspiracy theories. John Key is not the puppet of a shadowy new world order based in the US – he represents the very visible rich and powerful at home. This rich and powerful class is happy to sell out ordinary kiwis, if it means they can make more money overseas.
Secondly, this shows that those standing against the TPPA have friends and allies. For the wealthy farmers in NZ, the prize in the
TPPA would be the ability to undercut the dairy industry in North America, which could destroy many farming communities there. The NZ dairy mafia in Fonterra have no right to get rich at the expense of farming communities abroad (in the same way they don’t have the right to do it at the expense of the environment at home). These farming communities across the waves in the Americas can be friends and allies in fighting this trade deal – but only if TPPA opponents are focused on the TPPA as a whole and not caught behind the ‘national interests’.
Opponents of the TPPA will only be able to work together with these allies if we keep our focus on the trade deals for the rich. In each of the 12 nations involved in the TPPA negotiations there will be winners. It might be mining magnates from Australia, or manufacturers in South Korea. But in each country, working people will lose.
Finally, it shows how the TPPA can be beaten. The problem is not that the powerful don’t understand. The TPPA will not be stopped by good arguments alone. Powerful people in New Zealand understand the TPPA, and they want it to happen because it can make them richer. The only thing that can stop this money power – is people power. The same ordinary working people who will lose out are the ones who keep the system running. Mobilising popular power can create a political and economic force that can overcome this trade deal, in the same way other treaties have been overcome in the past (for example ANZUS re nuclear ships). This won’t take just rally or petition, and cannot be just through the election of establishment parties, but has to be sustained, vocal and militant. Rather than negotiating a better deal for NZ capitalists, we must reject the TPPA wholesale.
The TPPA NZ Week of Action will be held from the 8th-15th of August. For information on local actions see itsourfuture.org.nz
Ben moved to Christchurch in 2014 to work for Unite Union on the South Island. He’s a long time socialist and a member of the Mana Movement.
Well said Ben. Especially this:
I believe the TPPA is/was one of the means to the end but not the end.
But it doesn’t matter anyway with the global currency reserve shifting. Whole new ball game.
On a pragmatic and grass roots level you are right.
However there s a lot of truth in the old adage ‘ All roads lead to Rome’..
And while you state this leads to some resorting to conspiracy theories…this is only part of the story. Another way of stating the ‘All roads lead to Rome ‘ adage would be to say ‘ All roads lead to the global superbanks’…
And it is here that the public interface with those superbanks are met with the intermediary’s the politicians. And it is at this point that we operate…with the politicians.
As stability is required by those superbanks to not only derive their huge profits – but as a natural consequence of that wealth ….the power they wield. We cannot directly control those global superbanks but what we can control are our local politicians – to a point.
They have vast resources that the common person lacks. However…these same politicians can be reigned in….not merely by just the vote….as much damage can be done between terms…but by the threat of mass public criticism and discontent…and in the case of some country’s the real or perceived threat of insurrection or revolt.
Both produce the same result : a fear of loss by the banking tiers…which in ascending order makes its way felt right up to those superbanks that wish to wield global influence. As a country descends into chaos…investments and political instability threaten those goals.
The trick is to avoid that chaos entirely to avoid negative outcomes for the populace and yet still register that displeasure and exercise political control.
And you are right about unionism , collective opposition , militancy expressed en masse…and that means constant and unrelenting publicity that keeps the issues firmly in the public eye…which after constant exposure tends to create firm opinion in the public. This then registers in political party’s internal polling advising them where to and where not to tread.
Really , this is the only valid option we have if we want to retain a democratic and non violent society. So it takes two things…constant publicity and educating the public because of that publicity.
“we must reject the TPPA wholesale.” duh !
That was a pretty lame opinion piece ,sorry nothing personal but some of us have actually been paying attention for years not weeks !
The TPP(A) is a transnational corporate coup d’etat ,it is a multi prong corporate attack on the free people of the world ! On the Pacific region we have the TPP(A) and in Europe we have the TTIP .
What most people fail to notice is the essence of the argument is a deception . The TPP(A) is framed as a “free trade agreement” and by accepting that title we empower the very corporations attacking us !
The TPP(A) has 29 Chapters ,only 5 loosely relate to trade !
By any logical definition the TPP(A) is not and should not be referred to as a “free trade agreement” ,especially by its opponents !
The TPP(A) is a corporate power grab …pure and simple. If you apply the minimum of logic to the situation you see the very organisations that caused the Global Financial Collapse in 2008 are the very entities behind the TPP(A) .
Consider that for a moment !
I have also been militant about my opposition to amended P4 trade agreement that has now become the TPPA for years. I just happened across an article that praised the inclusion of Lobiests chief amongst them Jamie Dimon ex Golman Sachs (GS) ex board member (GS) CEO of Goldmen and “Obamas favourite banker” as the the headline put it. A man of which I am aware of his deep criminal activity. The same guy that brokered the deal that saw him gain millions and NZ super lose hundreds of millions. The same bloke that fraudulent hid Greek debt so they could join the euro. Then get ripped of.
1000% Sam.
Goldman Sachs is an evil cancerous growth on our global economy that must be gotten rid of.
the people that “down vote” you and don’t leave a comment to justify their position may as well be subtracted from the discussion .
It seems like you support wasteful use of resources. So much for the left being good for the environment.
Ha!…says the guy who has no qualms about wasteful human resources ending up on the scrap heap and being paid slave wages – and all to support and justify his big business corporate bludging sense of entitlements.
How about those bludger corporate’s start paying their fair share of taxes instead of sponging off the rest of us , eh Gosman?
Maybe then you can bang on about ‘resources’ and waste and stop crying those crocodile tears about the ‘environment ‘ .
I sometimes wonder is Gosman is Whale Oil, or one of Slater’s sad little minions.
Ignore goose stepper and he/she will go away as it gets paid for every response so bleed em’ dry.
That photo says it all Key with his I don’t give a shit face and his side kick with his arms folded. It tells me we will do what we want and stuff the country.
John Key is not the puppet of a shadowy new world order based in the US – he represents the very visible rich and powerful at home.
I can’t say I agree Martyn, many of the rich and powerful at home have links to elitists all over the world, including the U.S. This is self-evident by the use of the neo-liberal model throughout the western world, basically the same agenda is being followed. Do you honestly think this is a coincidence?
The hidden hand theory is not at all far-fetched when you think about it. Bilderberg,and G20 are prime examples of collusion between big business and our ‘elected’ officials and just like the TPPA the content is kept secret.
Oops, not Martyn, Ben. I saw TDB logo and assumed. Sorry Ben.
John Key is not the puppet of a shadowy new world order based in the US – he represents the very visible rich and powerful at home.
FJK was sent here to steer NZ into the same hole as Greece is in now.
No matter what the “so called experts have said that in July our rock star economy will have an “Encore”!!!!!!
Rubbish they span then now as you see.
FJK must be an agent of Bilderberg Group Dutch Royal Shell CEO Queen Beatrix, Goldman Sachs, Rockefeller, Rothschild’s & all the corrupt dirty dozen.
Key meets them at their secret meetings.
Actually it CAN be stopped by an argument and a petition, this one NZDEMOCRACY.com!
The Government can either be Democratic OR it can have unlimited/anti-Democratic powers to sign the anti-Democratic TPP.
But it can’t be both, they are mutually exclusive!
This is plainly obvious when you think about it, we have been playing a game where Democratic Governments have been decided they can do anything, well they can’t! Not with Democratic power they can’t!
That can only be done by force under a dictatorship!
So are the Government empowered by the people or ruling over the people?
Currently they have been using the illusion of legitimate democratic power to conceal illegitimate actions by force!
I feel the opposition should be investigating the validity of the main argument of the government is that free trade helps our farmers.
Nope – milk prices show the opposite is happening. Milk prices are falling with these trade deals.
What is instead happening is that the foreigners are not buying our milk they are buying our entire farms and sending our food directly off shore.
Our biggest export is being destroyed under our noses and they are trying to make it worse by signing this agreement so it can not be stopped.
NZ can not buy Chinese Farms but China (and everyone else) can buy NZ Farms. Does not sound fair to me?
Today Milk solids are forecast $3.85 per kilo in 2008.
When the China/NZ Free trade deal was made milk solids were $7.59 per Kilo.
Yes there is a short term spike which gets the locals into debt and then when the prices fall due to food scares which have increased under these free trade agreements then local farmers start to lose their farms and they are bought up in bulk by our overseas ‘trade’ partners.
Don’t buy the milk when you can buy the cow and even better the farm!
Found an interesting summation of the TPPA from Thrive movement.com:
Empowers multinational corporations to sue foreign or domestic governments in a special court if their profits are deemed to be impeded by concerns such as the protection of eco-systems.
Extends patents to further benefit pharmaceutical companies to the detriment of generics and consumers.
Forces Internet providers to “filter” all communications in search of copyright infringements with the power to censor sites that are alleged to be involved. This would be the next attempt (after CISPA, SOPA and PIPA) to put the Internet under corporate rule.
Creates Supra-national powers that override national laws and constitutions.
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