Add ‘Trade for All’ to the list of government sell-outs
Some have asked why my radio silence over recent months. Simple. Once it became clear that I could have zero influence on this government’s trade and investment policy, I have been working where I can make a difference. There are other governments, international institutions, and influencers who are genuinely rethinking the current rule-book and resisting moves to make it even worse.
Read More →Farewell and Thanks to a Rangatira
Last Thursday at Mangamuka we buried Rua Rakena, a quiet revolutionary who had an extraordinary, but largely unsung, influence on Maori and Tiriti politics from the 1960s to the 1990s
Read More →Why NZ must get rid of ISDS now
Information just revealed under Australia’s Freedom of Information Act shows taxpayers bore half the AUD23 million cost of defeating an investment dispute brought by tobacco giant Philip Morris.
Read More →Big Tech & Free Trade
On the ‘knowledge’ panel at the hui in October 2018 on What an Alternative and Progressive Trade Strategy for New Zealand, Professor Jane Kelsey explained how trade rules on ‘e-commerce’ would cement the dominance of Big Tech and close off our ability to shape the digital domain in the public good.
Read More →NZ Joins Breakaway Push for WTO E-Commerce Rules that Protect Google etc from Regulation
Documents I’ve obtained under the Official Information Act, although heavily redacted, show our government really has no idea of the implications.
Read More →Food for thought as we work to re-set NZ’s trade and investment agenda
In the past week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been a cheerleader for free trade negotiations with the United Kingdom and European Union, aiming the finish the EU one within the year.
Read More →Launch of JusTrade.nz heralds a new campaign for a 21st century trade agenda
‘The message from the hui was very clear: we need to generate real alternatives that confront climate change and disruption, while supporting sustainable local businesses and jobs that pay a living wage, in a nation founded on te Tiriti o Waitangi.’
Read More →Labour-New Zealand First government should be ashamed of hollow TPPA promises
The Labour-New Zealand First government will be hoping that New Zealanders have got short memories as it celebrates the entry into force of the rebranded Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, minus the United States.
Read More →Rethinking the trade and investment agenda in turbulent times ‘What an Alternative and Progressive Trade Strategy Should Look Like’,
These days I feel depressed, cautiously optimistic, and frustrated at the same time.
Read More →Post-TPPA, we have to make the changes happen
Our unprecedented protests against the TPPA, from small rural towns to the main cities, moved the political ground on secretly negotiated international treaties that entrench corporate rights, handcuff elected governments and disempower peoples. Politicians were shaken. The Holy Grail of free trade agreements was now a political liability.
Read More →Lessons for the Left from NAFTA Mark-II
We underestimate Trump’s people. We don’t have to support their visceral racism and sexism and cynical manipulation of populist sentiment to recognise that something significant is happening. The rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the US, Canada and Mexico released last week poses crucial challenges for the left that we need to understand if we are to shape a genuinely alternative, progressive new strategy for the future – the goal of our hui in Auckland on 19-20 October.
Read More →Converting resistance to TPPA into a new agenda for change
Last week I was in New York at a conference on Rethinking International Investment Governance – the investor-state dispute system (ISDS) that lets transnational corporations enforce special rights through secretive, offshore, pro-investor tribunals.
Read More →Unions and NGOs announce Two-day hui on “What an Alternative & Progressive Trade Strategy Should Look Like”, Auckland, 19-20 October
The two-day hui at the Fale Pasifika at Auckland University from 19-20 October has a forward looking focus. The programme features ten impressive panels in conversation on the pressing issues of the future, from the international economy, geopolitics and livelihoods to Treaty-based relationships, sustainable worlds, health, knowledge and how to reinvigorate the local.
Read More →MUST READ: Trade for All is a lie
It has taken almost a year for the not-so-new Labour-led government to act on its promise of an inclusive and progressive new trade strategy. Only, ‘act’ a far too generous description. It’s too little, too late. The terms of reference signed off by the Cabinet are not going to explore the real reasons why Kiwis, among many others around the world, have turned their backs on these agreements.
Read More →“Trade For All” consultation lacks credibility while negotiations on old model continue
‘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’.
Read More →“Trade for All” in the EU NZ FTA Offers No New Direction
I urge the coalition parties in government to deliver the genuine change in the model of trade agreements that they promised before the election.
To date the promised review of trade strategy has involved outreach or information-sharing sessions on negotiations already underway, within the anti-democratic shroud of secrecy that shields the negotiations from scrutiny. There is no tangible evidence that the government intends to do anything significantly different.
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