John Key excited that TPP deal close but

Written By: - Date published: 1:42 pm, June 24th, 2015 - 30 comments
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admits it doesn’t adequately address dairy products (one of NZ’s main export products). That’s right, the PM acknowledges that dairy products are not dealt with in a way NZ would like… He even has to contradict Tim Groser’s views here and here  to try to not make his point. It’s “net positive” for NZ if it were signed today, but dairy would be a loser. So, Key happy to trade dairy for other benefits to NZ of TPP.

June 22 (BusinessDesk) – The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact does not yet include an acceptable deal on access for New Zealand’s most important exports, dairy products, with little more than a month to go before the controversial 12 nation trade deal could be concluded.

“I think the way I would describe it is there’s a deal. It’s probably not at the level that we would currently like,” said Prime Minister John Key at his post-Cabinet press conference in Wellington. He was referring to comments last week by Trade Minister Tim Groser that negotiations on dairy access to the heavily protected US, Canadian and Japanese markets had “barely started.”

A vote is due in the US Senate as early as mid-week to grant “fast-track” negotiating authority to US President Barack Obama to conclude the deal after a crucial vote in the Congress last Thursday left the Senate as the final hurdle.

Key took issue with Groser’s comments to BusinessDesk last week that there was so far “no deal” on dairy products.

“It’s not to say that there’s a bad deal on dairy products, it’s more to say that there’s no deal,” Groser said last week. “We’ve barely started. Phony negotiating positions have been put on the table but that doesn’t help a professional negotiator make a judgement as to where the landing zone is.”

However, Key said: “From what I’ve seen at the moment, if in theory we froze time and concluded the deal as I see it, it’s net positive for New Zealand. But it wouldn’t be doing enough for dairy for us to be comfortable and we would like to do some more there. There are a lot of other sectors that would be very happy about it.”

Remember Key thought the TPP would be completed by end of 2014. So where is the questioning of Key about exactly what is worth trading dairy for?

30 comments on “John Key excited that TPP deal close but ”

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  1. Charles 1
    24 June 2015 at 2:26 pm

    For those not familiar with Keynian English I offer a translation:

    “From what I’ve seen at the moment…”
    oh hai journalist! I’m good. How is TPPA?

    “…if in theory we froze time…”
    Well what I say next has no context, so

    “… and concluded the deal…”
    if something premature and reckless ended well for me,

    “…as I see it, it’s net positive for New Zealand…”
    then my life would continue along pretty good.

    “…. But it wouldn’t be doing enough for dairy…”
    Even our most loyal supporters would be well and truely rat-fucked, though,

    “… for us to be comfortable…”
    and we’d be scared we might not make it to the airport, alive,

    “… and we would like to do some more there.”
    but if we did we’d feel really good again, fleeing your pathetic housing bubble, with matching ruined economy, about to pop.

    “…There are a lot of other sectors…”
    The World is a big place,

    “… that would be very happy about it.”
    and extradition from warm tax havens is never assured. Bai!

    oh but hey, what about that Bright Future, huh? All five of you rowing up that thin river… out into the ocean swell…

    • Macro 1.1
      24 June 2015 at 3:11 pm

      Or more succinctly “Hey! Barack reckons I’m gonna do all right out of this so, it’s all good bro – fuck you lot! I’ll be outta here anyway”.

    • Gosman 1.2
      24 June 2015 at 3:31 pm

      Are you suggesting the entire National Cabinet would be likely to leave the country?

      • Sable 1.2.1
        24 June 2015 at 3:38 pm

        We can but hope Gosman. They really would be better off in the US given they are acting as if they work for the Americans.

        • Gosman 1.2.1.1
          24 June 2015 at 4:17 pm

          And yet many Politicians in the US seem reluctant to give authority to Obama to negotiate in an effective manner. Perhaps they are anti-American Americans /sarc

          • Tracey 1.2.1.1.1
            24 June 2015 at 4:40 pm

            you mean the authority to fast track? cos Obamas admin have been part of the negotiation for ages along with 400 corporate reps unfettered by any politicians.

            • Gosman 1.2.1.1.1.1
              24 June 2015 at 5:14 pm

              Oh so the TPPA is not really benefitting America but it is benefitting corporates (which may or may not reside in the US). I do wish you leftists would get your story straight about who is behind the TPPA.

              • Macro …
                24 June 2015 at 5:28 pm

                Oh good – you have finally woken up to the fact that is what the TPPA is all about. Had you been awake and listening, rather than writing your unmitigated tosh, you would have realised all along that this is nothing more than a “let’s help multinationals rip off the poor even more” sort of deal – aided and abetted by complicit governments such as US, and NZ.

              • Potato …
                24 June 2015 at 6:02 pm

                Exactly !! Did you not notice that TPPA protests were against corporate control and govt secrecy. We weren’t protesting against the US because the average US citizen is going to be hit as much as us. The US government is doing this because of those big multinationals (who fund many of their campaigns).

              • sabine …
                24 June 2015 at 6:26 pm

                oh wow, took you some time to realise what pretty much everyone including the standard Joe Bloke Ordinary Mr. 6Pack US American citizen has been saying now for a few years.

                here, get a smile for effort. 🙂

              • Sable …
                24 June 2015 at 7:46 pm

                Gosman. No one is obliged to do anything for you chum. There are honest politicians in the USA just as there are here. Just not the ones supporting the TPPA.

              • tracey …
                25 June 2015 at 5:51 pm

                avoiding wat i asked.

    • M Scott 1.3
      25 June 2015 at 10:50 am

      Just Brilliant! Thanks for the accurate interpretation.

  2. dukeofurl 2
    24 June 2015 at 5:58 pm

    In Australia their own Productivity Commision has launched a scathing attack on so called ‘Free Trade agreements’

    Free trade agreements ‘preferential’ and dangerous, says Productivity Commission

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/free-trade-agreements-preferential-and-dangerous-says-productivity-commission-20150624-ghw7rk.html

    “According to the Commission, the Japan and Korean agreements were concluded without a rigorous and independent assessment of whether costs would exceed benefits. There was also no mechanism in place to monitor the outcomes of the agreements after they come into force, it said.”

    and this
    “investor-state dispute settlement clauses included in the Korean and Chinese agreements and planned for the Trans Pacific Partnership “depart from national treatment principles by affording substantive appeal rights to foreigners not available to domestic firms,”

  3. Hateatea 3
    24 June 2015 at 7:52 pm

    Currently the top of the right hand side bar

    http://www.nznotforsale.org/2015/06/24/maori-launch-waitangi-tribunal-claim-against-tppa-today/

    The concerns are as for the rest of the thinking populace of this country as well as some iwi specific concerns.

  4. Sable 4
    24 June 2015 at 7:53 pm

    Really this is the worst betrayal of the people of New Zealand by a government in this country’s history.

  5. Red delusion 5
    24 June 2015 at 10:12 pm

    Oh Sable settle down, it will pass, the sun will come up in the morning and the world won’t end , the TPPA will be just another trade deal like many others, stop fretting, and by the way you don’t represent the people of NZ

    • Sable 5.1
      25 June 2015 at 8:22 am

      Nor do you pal. I have an opinion, you don’t like it, too bad. I won’t say more, you are not worth the effort.

    • tracey 5.2
      25 June 2015 at 5:54 pm

      ” another trade deal like many others”

      which shows u dont actually have much knowledge of the tpp

  6. Clemgeopin 6
    24 June 2015 at 10:20 pm

    It is wiser and much safer to have bilateral trade deals with other countries rather than being bound by this huge multi-nation TPP agreement.

    Once consummated and in, not easy to get out or abort.

  7. Reddelusion 7
    24 June 2015 at 10:40 pm

    Bi lateral deals are however sub optimal from a comparative trade point of view and overall economic efficiency to the benefit of all

    • Clemgeopin 7.1
      25 June 2015 at 12:55 am

      What use is the economic ‘efficiency’ if the real price of all that is the loss of our independence, freedom, values, control and our own as well as our future generation’s ultimate happiness?

    • tracey 7.2
      25 June 2015 at 5:55 pm

      strange that we couldnt get dairy in… you know one of our lynch pin exporters. tell me reddelusion what did we get in return to make up for that?

  8. Drowsy M. Kram 8
    24 June 2015 at 11:04 pm

    “the TTPA will be just another trade deal like many others”

    Given that the most unbiased source of information on NZ’s secret TTPA negotiations appears to be WikiLeaks, I’m genuinely curious about the basis for this confident assertion. Others may be in a position to judge whether it’s a deep evidence-based analysis, or off-the-cuff humbug. The friendly advice to “stop fretting” is eerily similar to our Government’s line on any number of corruption scandals past and present – ‘Move along, nothing to see here.’

    • Sable 8.1
      25 June 2015 at 8:26 am

      Oh yes. Relax, don’t think for yourself, let us do the thinking for you……Usual Tory spin, best ignored…..

  9. vto 9
    25 June 2015 at 6:14 am

    The TPPA affects the power of our votes and as such it requires far more than a simple Parliamentary majority to become legitimate.

    The TPPA will not be legitimate.

    Does Parliament have the power to remove our vote? Some would say yes and to those I would say ‘so what is the power that Parliament has that it can do that?’ and the answer would likely flow that it is sovereign blah fucken blah, but the true answer is that those in control of Parliament are effectively in control of the armed forces. It is the government’s jackboots and threats of physical sanction (i.e. guns) that is the sole manner in which Parliament can achieve the TPPA.

    The TPPA is being enforced at the barrel of a gun here in NZ.

    Heavy subtle truth.

    freedom and democracy – what a fucking joke.

  10. tracey 10
    25 June 2015 at 5:58 pm

    so the dairy issue doesnt bother tpp supporters? odd cos it even concerns groser… altho today he is pretending the rewards will begin sweeping through nz in 2017. i wonder if that date will be like the surplus a lie in time for an election campaign?