‘The “Trade for All” consultation announced by the Prime Minister today is predictably underwhelming and lacks credibility’.
It has taken almost a year for the government to announce a decision to establish a Trade for All board, whose membership is yet to be determined. The new ‘Trade for All’ policy is to be announced in June next year, eighteen months after the government came to power.
The long list of current negotiations the Prime Minister read out today confirms it is ‘business as usual’ in a raft of large-scale negotiations that put ‘trade with all’ way ahead of ‘trade for all’.
‘There is nothing that reflects the new “trade for all” agenda in the current negotiations. Nothing to address the “loss of confidence in the trade agenda” that the Prime Minister referred to, let alone to rebuild that confidence. Nor is there anything to “spread the benefits evenly”.’
‘It is worrying that the Prime Minister aims to ensure New Zealand’s values and sovereignty were not “unduly compromised” in the quest for more market access. But the shroud of secrecy continues, leaving us in a “trust me” zone with a government that has given us no grounds to do so’.
I expect changes to the negotiating mandate in the Pacific Alliance on gender, small and medium enterprises, and regional development to result in ‘rhetorical clip-ons’ that do nothing to counter the negative impacts on them of the far-reaching chapters on services, investment, intellectual property or government procurement.
‘Reports from both the Pacific Alliance and the RCEP negotiations suggest that even the promised exclusion of investor-state dispute settlement will not be achieved’.
Most of these current negotiations were begun by National. Labour and NZ First have continued them. PACER-plus, which is currently before the House, is the product of a decade long process begun by a previous Labour government. I describe the final deal as ‘a mockery of claims to be pro-development’. The two largest Pacific island countries, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, refused to sign.
The Prime Minister pointed to the new negotiations with the European Union as the first initiative under Trade for All – a slogan the EU itself coined several years ago.
I note that the European version has met similar scepticism from civil society, academics and politicians who are concerned about growing inequalities, financial and job instability, consolidation of corporate power and a corresponding loss of regulatory sovereignty.
To fill the void of genuine alternatives coming from the government, a number of organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, It’s Our Future, Doctors for Healthy Trade, and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation will co-convene a two-day hui at the University of Auckland on 19-20 October to discuss ‘What an Alternative and Progressive Trade Strategy Should Look Like’. More information on that hui will be available shortly.
Trade is dependent on the burning of fossil fuels, and therefore has no long-term future.
We cannot say for certain when international trade will go into terminal decline but we do know that point is not far off.
We can also say for certain that maintaining historic economic arrangements (or even worse attempting to expand them) is the worst possible long-term strategy.
The Adern government’s feeble and counter-productive responses to our dire energetic and environmental predicament (matching the feeble and counter-productive responses of most other governments) is utterly reprehensible but clearly stems from gross ignorance of fundamentals or extreme cowardice; there really is no excuse for either.
Just why is the Adern government pushing so hard for increased fossil fuel use when it should be pushing hard for reduced fossil fuels use?
‘Domino-effect of climate events could push Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state
Leading scientists warn that passing such a point would make efforts to reduce emissions increasingly futile’
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/06/domino-effect-of-climate-events-could-push-earth-into-a-hothouse-stat
take a leaf out of the Trumpets book, Trade War with Austrailia
DAVID PARKER SHIFTING DECKCHAIRS ON THE TPPA TITANIC.
Trade for all as long as you are a huge multinational company .
This appears to be a light weight , candy floss ,PR spin window dressing diversion from Labour to sell the TPPA as more ” inclusive ” .
Im not fooled by this red herring .
The bigger story is the fact that Labour have signed and endorsed a TPP agreement which specifically intends to increase the extraction ,transportation ,and burning of fossil fuels, in a document that has never once mentioned the words climate change in its “comprehensive ” 6147 pages .This is the real crime against humanity .
Is the increased burning of fossil fuels, good world governance Mr Parker ? Lets focus on this story instead.
Europe is experiencing unprecedented hot air from the Sahara , California is literally on fire and NSW is now 99% in drought with hot air shifting from the Australian outback.
Mr Parker, isn’t about time we started to think about food security for large urban populations .Because its getting pretty real .
No water = no crops or animals = no food = no cities .
Cut the candy floss Labour ,we need a completely new trade model for a sustainable world and TPP needs an immediate carve out on fossil fuel growth as well as tabacco, well before tinkering with boutique mini exporters .
Nobody is fooled by you rearranging the deck chairs on the TPPA Titanic .
“Trade for all ” is a meaningless diversion of fluffy nothings from spineless puppet politicans that are run by puppetmaster MFAT who are in turn religiously indoctrinated by their neoliberal corporate overlords .
Lets sort the big issues first .
The overwhelming objective of TPP is still corporate dominance and the mindless growth in fossil fuels until the planet dies . Now that’s real progress .
When we pull the mask off today’s “TPP Captains of industry ” we get a clear view of tomorrows “Climate Criminals “.
Jane is right , we need a whole new approach , not tinkering .
No way TPPA.
Countryboy and Black Lemming are on the right track.
NZ/AO has been recolonized by the US and China to produce raw materials for export. Even our IP startups are raw material for Big Tech.
Wool got stuffed because our two big imperialist masters made clothes out of oil. These emperors as now without clothes.
We have reverted to being exporters of milk, logs, fruit and digitalized scenery.
The first three are staple commodities, the last is a scam.
Growth elsewhere is a ponzi scheme of land speculation.
Don’t be the last out the door when the lights go out.
The only short circuit of this fate is to nationalize the land and lease it back to those who produce what is needed to survive. That eliminates land as a source of speculation and restores its role in the ecosystem.
Of course that means kicking out politicians who serve their imperialist masters and then creating a government of those who do the productive work, elected by local democratic councils.
Then nationalize the banks and create a state bank to fund productive land use based on sustainable resources.
To do this we have to be able to defend ourselves against the invasions of hostile special ops and sanctions for ‘democratic regime change’.
Then, and only then, will we be able to trade with other countries which have made similar changes, so that the working peoples of the world can link hands against all the destructive forces of parasitic capitalism and climate collapse.
Once we have done that we can do anything. Like survive.
Ah but the red rubber stampers still support this dismal govt come what may. Really just a continuation of the Nats policies for the most part.
[…] in response came across as too angry. I’m not surprised it did. I was bloody angry. You can read it here. Now I want to explain […]
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