We support fair trade, which is free trade that respects human rights and looks after the planet.
Fair trade upholds environmental standards that will protect and restore the biodiversity and biosecurity of our planet.
We seek trade solutions that promote sustainable forms of development and protect overseas workers from exploitation.
Fair trade is a shared pathway towards greater global prosperityâone that doesnât sacrifice our sovereignty to multinational giants.
Ownership of land in Aotearoa/ New Zealand is a privilege that should be for citizens and permanent residents only
We welcome new investment that creates jobs in sustainable enterprises.
Foreign investment must meet sustainability criteria, and needs to be closely monitored to avoid the expatriation of profits from our productive asset base.
Key Principles
- The ecological limits to production and trade need to be understood and respected.
- We must promote sustainable and just ways to economic development and prosperity.
- Human rights and fair labour standards must be promoted and respected.
- The environment must be protected.
Specific Policy Points
Trade Agreements
- All international treaties must be voted on in Parliament before being signed, must give full effect to our Treaty of Waitangi obligations, and must put the rights of peoples and governments before those of multinational company investors.
- Uphold international labour and environmental agreements through an International Trading Organisation and regional trading agreements to replace the WTO).
Human rights
- Stop importing goods produced by slave, prison or child labour.
- Preserve the right of tangata whenua to protect themselves and their taonga from trade and investment related exploitation.
Ecological sustainability
- Ban trade in GMOs except under strict biosecurity controls for contained use.
- Full labelling of the contents and country of origin of all goods.
- Reduce the introduction of unwanted exotic species (eg by more public education, six-sided inspection of cargo containers, more staff training and technology.)
Just and sustainable production and trade
- A government commitment to ‘buy local’.
- Reduce our dependence on imported goods, eg food we can grow here.
- All goods and services produced or sold in New Zealand to meet quality and sustainability standards (eg energy and recycling standards).
- Encourage fair trade with developing countries that support sustainable development.
- Retain or impose tariffs, quotas or bans to stop unfair competition from unjust or unsustainable production (eg forced labour, unsustainable logging).
- Oppose trade deregulation in public goods, services and utilities, and where desirable, roll back GATS commitments.
Investment safeguards
- Land ownership for New Zealand citizens and permanent residents only.
- More stringent conditions on overseas investment.
- A Code of Corporate Responsibility for all corporations in New Zealand.
_____________________________________________________________________
Some pieces that seem particularly pertinent to the TPPA-11
Aotearoa New Zealand has a long history of international trade. The Green Party recognises the importance of trade to our economy, and wants Aotearoa New Zealand to continue to trade and prosper. However, global trade as a source of prosperity now exceeds sustainable ecological limits, and in many countries it has increased rather than decreased poverty, ill health and social distress. The existing international trading regime prevents equitable economic development, rather than supporting it. The Green Party believes that Aotearoa New Zealand needs to respect the ecological and social limits to trade, develop ways to trade wisely, and form part of an international movement to reform the foreign investment and trade system.
Trade agreements must respect democracy and sovereignty, and promote good international governance.
The Green Party believes that New Zealanders need to be involved in making decisions about international trade and investment, and we want to ensure that trade and investment is consistent with respecting environmental and social rights, responsibilities and standards. This means that New Zealand needs a more democratic approach to economic decision-making nationally and internationally. International trade agreements must be subject to international environmental and labour treaties, and must not override them.
The Green Party will:
1. Ensure all international treaty texts are open to public scrutiny, give full effect to Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Tiriti o Waitangi responsibilities and obligations, and require a vote in Parliament before being signed.
2. Strengthen the powers of international environmental organisations, labour and human rights organisations, and development organisations (e.g. United Nations Environment Programme, International Labour Organisation, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) to enable them to enforce their mandate and restrain unfair and unsustainable trading practices.
3. Work towards the development of an International Trading Organisation and regional trading agreements that respect and uphold international labour and environmental agreements, to replace the World Trade Organisation and existing unfair and unsustainable bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.
The Green Party will ensure that Aotearoa New Zealand’s sovereign right to protect all its citizens and its natural environment from exploitation and degradation is maintained and not compromised by global trade policies and commitments.
The Green Party will:
4. Support the right of Aotearoa New Zealand and other nations to encourage local, social and ecologically sustainable development, and foster self-reliance (e.g. oppose forced trade through compulsory market access and similar mechanisms).
5. Preserve the right of tangata whenua to protect themselves and their taonga from trade and investment related exploitation.
6. Stop the transfer of decision-making about food standards and safety and health products to unaccountable trans-national agencies (e.g. Food Standards Australian New Zealand).
7. Review existing World Trade Organisation and other trade treaty commitments and limit or roll back their application where these are not consistent with exercising positive sovereignty.
 Melissa Lee â as may be discerned from the screenshot above â has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ... 
Sometimes its better to be lucky, I mean she just dodged a massive bullet. Don’t get me wrong TPP should go ahead but it would have been very amusing to watch her justify NZs inclusion to all those that protested against it
Ah well, moving on
The bullet the PM missed was having to be the party who led the unwinding of the TPP11 negotiations. It better for her and this Government to be seen as tough but fair on the proposed Agreement, and then let someone else pop the ballon. Satisfies everybody politically. “We gave it a good try, but the bugger was too big.”
I wonder if behind the scenes discussions between the Adern and Trudeau took place, or whether Ardern is just lucky.
i would have been fine with it if Isds crap and the right to control who buys houses etc was cut out and so would have many ,
Thats because nobody who knows about the TPP has sat down and written out scenarios so that people can feel what will happen instead of just reading some dry legal docs.
The Canadian media is critical of the NZ and Aussie media for blaming Canada for delays in the TPP talks.
Breaking now on Canada’s CBC website:
Malaysia and Vietnam were trying to maintain weak labour laws, but now apparently have come into line with the other countries on this.
Vietnam had bern pushing for exemption on some of the labour laws?
I read somewhere that Vietnam wanted more time as their Labour laws are a long way behind the other countries. (And having watched Vietnamese workers on the building site Health and Safety laws just aint there!)
After reading the updated CBC article Carolyn linked to, I can’t see how Vietnam can be part of what TPP11 has become. From their perspective it will be kicking and screaming into a progressive 21st century.
Almost akin to the NZ dairy industry going fully organic, imposed by international trade agreement…..
What, deficient protection for workers? In a good Communist country too? Does not compute ….
Low wages are their competitive advantage, and there would be nations happen for them to stay that way as they import their goods via that labour rate.
ISDS does not seem to be directly mentioned but the idea that Canada has only been victims of the ISDS rather than users is a little off (if that is what Louisthered is meaning in the tweet above).
ISDS and Intellectual property are 2 big ones for me.
What do pissed off trolls look and sound like?
The decryper; – What do pissed off trolls look and sound like?
They die in the $11.7 billion hole like the biggest troll of all steven joyce did.
I reinterate i do feel sorry for 3rdstepstotheright, srylands,chairman,james,Puckish rogue and the others as all those loosers are not thinking straight.
They subornly are those who back all these ‘hair-brained’ neolb-neocon ideas that have decimated our global financial structure to the point that now another GFC is imminently sitting right on our doorstep yet again.
I do agree with the green plan on fair trade as it is balanced.
But above all this we need to return to a more “resiliant” economy as one who is more self reliant like others are so when GFC comes along we dont suffer the “greece effect” again or being forced to use soul destroying “austerity’
Self sufficency is the path forward for small countries like NZ, and we are vey well placed to achieve this.
We can certainly be self sufficient in food and electricity, however, if you want to enjoy continued 1st world healthcare etc we need to trade with the world to support that lifestyle.
Even tho some of those first worlders want to drive the cost of our 1st world healthcare up? Do you really think that pharams wont want to flog their goods to us cos we are not in TPP11? Business is far more pragmatic than that, they will take customers where they can. The world is a very big place, bigger even than these 10 kemosabes
Tracey read clean green’s comment and my reply to that comment again.
cleangreen referred to the Green Trade policy which is fair trade not no trade?
Thanks Tracey I missed that one as i was out feeding my pet 40 sheep.
cheers and by the way ‘first world health care???
I am disabled with chemical poisoning from 1992 and now are forced to treat my own chemical poisoning now since returning to NZ in 1998 because our ‘world class health care’ do not have any treatments for those who have chemical poisoning, so we do not get world class health care in NZ.
So sorry Stunned Mullet I can live self sufficient now ‘health wise’ because I am forced to do so, so I live on a mountain many miles 70+kms from chemicals and pollution with a wonderful wife we have been together 45 yrs now and both met in Canada.
You do realise that global-wide much of the medical research is funded through governments and charities and yet the big pharma corporations are the ones that reap most of the financial rewards? Do you also realise that these same corporations want to protect their business and financial & tax shenanigans through instruments such as the TPP-11? The whole argument that we have to trade to support this is built on a carefully crafted construct by and for large capitalist corporations and capitalism at large. When you do realise these things the TPP-11 becomes a smokescreen and a farce, which it is at the core of it. It has very little to do with the public or common good and is heavily biased towards the profitability of a few.
Breaking news.
NZ trade negotiators announce TPP1. “We have committed so much time and effort to the TPP set of negotiations that we couldn’t walk away from the concept.”
When asked about who has committed to the TPP1, it took a while, and a group discussion before being agreed that “at this moment we have the North Island and the South Island. Stewart Island is currently not committing to it.”
Ends.
Very clever Gristle. đ
Trudeau probably lost his phone and couldn’t bear the thought of turning up without being able to take a selfie to post on his social media accounts.
Nah, Bono called him into an urgent shareholders’ meeting.
Congratulations to Jane Kelsey for raising awareness to the people of NZ!!
I imagine she will NOT consider it dead until the furnace has cooled down on the corpse.
Wayne isn’t here yet but he will have a view, and it will lean toward it still being likely? Why? Because despite him championing TPP1 as being fine as it was, he and those who share his views will take any old version of a FTA because int heir minds any morsel from the big table is better than none.
It’s depressing hearing these Labour MPs and bureaucrats talking about trade. They’ve never traded in their lives, what the fuck would they know about trade.
The Greens are quite familiar with bartering and it’s interesting to see the difference of views on TPP between those who have traded and those who haven’t but still think they’re fucking experts. National at least had an excuse, those lackeys just did what their corporate masters told them to do.
It sounded to me like we had signed and that it was only Canada that saved us by the bell. Wouldn’t it have been nice for us if it has been Canada and NZ that had pulled away. We will be signing the blessed thing sooner or later as this new Government (or at least the Labour side of this Government) wants to be included in the TPPT.
IF it falls because of Canada this Labour party will be thrilled. They can spin it how they like and keep pretending they can cave to corp interests and “satisfy” interests that will never vote for them, while keeping their greater support happy. I might be wrong but suspect Ad would be happy if this was how it turned out cos there would be no TPP and Labour could claim they didn’t kill it. Playing both sides as it were.
Could we ask Justin T for a state visit? can’t say I remember any canadian prime ministers visiting but it would be nice to thank him in person
OR invite him and discuss a NZ/Canada Trade deal without all the BS TPP clauses.
Great idea.
without the BS TPP clauses?? There seems to be no such thing these days.
Do we really want our own NAFTA type arrangement with Canada?
These Leaders are all signed up and believers in Free Trade agreements even though they are never that crisp for, you know, people and workers, though The Economy seems to love them.
I was suggesting that in all the time taken on TPP 1 through 11 other deals might have been struck one on one.
I am aware that similar clauses to TPP’s ISDS have been n agreements before BUT the big difference is which countries Corps use them to override Govt policy for citizens. It is the US and Canada’s Corps with this history so any agreement with eithe rof those nations, imo has to have NO ISDS clause that allows a behind closed doors hearing presided over by corporate lawyers (who after hearings return to their day jobs ) and the details of whose decisions are not published and for which there is no right to appeal.
Wayne has suggested you cannot use a Court system cos some of the countries we are bargaining with have corrupt courts. leaving aside the obvious issue that we should NOT be negotiating with countries with corrupt courts or bad human rights practices, a clause could create an independent court (external to any particular member country) which can hear, in public, full arguments.
Weka you’d better follow this latest development now.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018621303
Radio NZ News flash 3pm 11/11/17.
Start
The 11 nations involved have reconvened today to try to salvage the deal and have agreed to most of the deal but four provisions that have been âsuspendedâ, the new agreement has been renamed âThe comprehensive progressive pacific partnership agreementâ.
End.
A fair trade is:
‘Do you want to buy my cabbage?’
‘Yes, what do you want in return?’
After a negotiation, both parties walk away and stay happy.
The friction in our country over NZ’s involvement in trade seems to mainly revolve around the affairs of those that we may trade with.
Some requirements that we make our trading partners meet are supported by all of us.
“We’ll pass on the cabbages treated with an insecticide that is a proven carcinogen thanks.”
The difficulty, expense and our reluctance to sue each other is part of our culture. I don’t want to live in a country where I can be bankrupted by a vacuum cleaner salesman that slips over on my green path one night. We need to defend that aspect of being a Kiwi. ‘Sorry Chase Manapple, we don’t do that here.’
Then, there is how much we want their cabbages if they treat their harvesters like dogs.
For me the question becomes, can we do more for those cabbage harvesters by buying the cabbages or gracefully declining? I feel tactfully trading will provide NZ with more opportunity for leverage to bring about positive change in those regimes than walking away.
How far should we push it? How much should we insist on particular standards before trading? I think a solid yardstick is considering how much influence we would allow them over our affairs pre-trade.
Just read an article on stuff. Wayne Mapp vs Kelsey is essentially
Trust me cos I reckon vs analysis and research.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/98742537/why-is-the-trans-pacific-partnerhip-agreement-back-on-the-table
This is sketchy to say the least. I find all the attempts at adding misdirection through layered complexity in the form of semantic waffle and pseudo legalese, both pathetic and predictable. Very much a case of “blind them with bullshit”.
Simple reality is this is a dirty deal and nothing will change that. For me, all it really proves, yet again, is politicians mostly only care for themselves and can, for the most part, not be trusted.