by David Clendon
The NZ-US Partnership Council meeting was held in Christchurch and finished the day of the earthquake. Understandably given the earthquake news of what occurred as this meeting was wrapping up is only now just filtering out. According to a report from Radio NZ a (nameless) United States congressman was happy to tell delegates that if New Zealand wanted to get anywhere with the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement then we may need to alter our intellectual property laws. Apparently it is quite common at events like this for the media to gain access to important information so long as they pay attention to Chatham House rules.
However it doesn’t really matter who this particular United States representative was. What matters is their message. And, that is, if New Zealand doesn’t start changing our laws to suit the needs of big business in the United States then we won’t be able to sign up to the Trans Pacific-Partnership.
John Key himself has come out and stated that there will be aspects of this deal that won’t sit well with the New Zealand public. The trouble is we won’t know what exactly these aspects are until Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials ink the deal on the TPP.
What we do know though is that players in the United States want New Zealand to tailor our legislation to suit their needs.
We consider that if enacted the way some overseas representatives want it the TPP will see an onslaught on New Zealand’s sovereignty that we have not seen before.
I intend to pay especially close attention to any last minute changes requested by officials in the Patents Bill. Especially ones that seem to favour overseas interests!
Published in Economy, Work, & Welfare by David Clendon on Wed, March 9th, 2011
Tags: john key, NZ US partnership council, TPP
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Seems like a good reason to keep our laws as they are!
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Their laws or their guns David – thank God our oil is undiscovered – else they might see a need to free the people (ie; kill them)
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This is another wave of onslaught on our sovereignty that began with the MAI and has continued through various acronyms since – it is all about the corporatisation of democracy. It needs a popular resistance to it but it is so slippery and so secretive it is hard to know where to start.
NZ Society of Authors is one group opposing it – we need to communicate with others as well.
Like boiling the frog – gently raise the heat and the frog doesn’t notice until it is too late. It’s pretty warm already.
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US opposition to free trade is on the rise – Republicans have blocked the extension of two free-trade schemes recently, and proposed cuts to farm subsidies also look likely to be blocked.
Which means John Key and MFAT are going to have to be extra super nice to the US government to persuade them to sign a deal with us. We’ll have to be stripped down to our undies before we’re allowed to even approach the table.
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Well said David.
This is yet another propaganda bullshit campaign designed to steal from us, a major intent seems to be the dismantling of Pharmac, allowing greedy pharmaceutical giants to exploit our sick and elderly. Labour needs to be embarrassed into promising to repeal this fatal surrender of our sovereignty.
We do not need free trade agreements to sell our food. The world is short of food. And the dumbest thing we can do is sell our farms.
“The TPPA – turkeys voting for an early Christmas”. Bumper stickers anyone?
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Another Leak Confirms Extreme US Demands in Trans-Pacific Partnership Deal
Press Release by Professor Jane Kelsey at 10:29 am, 15 Mar 2011
Leaks continue to beleaguer the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) even as the participating governments circle the wagons around the negotiating process, said Professor Jane Kelsey, a critic of the proposed TPPA.
The full text of the US chapter on intellectual property has been posted by Knowledge Ecology International (see: http://keionline.org/node/1091).
“This latest leak includes material not contained in the previous leak of the US intellectual property text last month and confirms the extreme nature of US demands”, Jane Kelsey said.
“For example, according to analysts the US text would stop countries from adopting practices that India and the Philippines have used to prevent the ‘evergreening’ of patents, which further restricts the production of cheaper generic medicines.”
This disclosure comes less than two weeks before the Singapore round of negotiations begins on 23rd March.
Intellectual property negotiations are expected to be among the most controversial items on the agenda, where the New Zealand and US positions on key aspects of the text remain polarised.
“This leak confirms how important it is for New Zealand’s negotiators to remain firm and not buckle to the US, not just to safeguard our own sovereignty but also for other countries that are caught up in the US’s free trade web,” said Professor Kelsey.
However, there are suggestions that Australia and New Zealand may support the US position on Geographical Indicators, in the hope it will benefit their agricultural exporters.
“Ironically, the latest leak comes after the governments involved in the negotiations rejected calls for greater transparency from prominent civil society groups across Australia, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United States. Early information from Singapore indicates they are tightening up the already token “stakeholder” access provided during previous rounds.”
“Despite, or perhaps because, of that attitude, the leaks continue to flow. Governments should read the writing on the wall and open the process to genuine democratic scrutiny,” said Professor Kelsey.
ENDS
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