Invitation To Endorse CAFCA's Opposition To Further Liberalising Overseas Investment Act

Friends,

It is becoming clearer with every passing day that the Government is intent on taking NZ further down the discredited old road of open slather foreign investment, privatisation and more and more free trade agreements. The only beneficiaries of this are the transnational corporations and their allies in local Big Business.


These are intimately interconnected issues and need to be confronted as such, rather than separately.


We have singled out the prospect of a Free Trade Agreement with the US, because that it is presented by both National and Labour as being the Holy Grail of free trade agreements. As you know, the Obama Administration has currently indefinitely suspended negotiations for such an Agreement with NZ, while it reviews the whole trade policy it has inherited. But that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen, simply that it won’t happen tomorrow. We need to take advantage of this opportunity to let the Government know of the opposition to this whole agenda.


CAFCA is asking you to endorse the following:



· I/We say “no” to the Government’s proposal to further liberalise the 2005 Overseas Investment Act

· I/We oppose New Zealand signing a trade agreement with the US through the proposed extension of the Transpacific Strategic Economic Partnership (commonly known as the P4 Agreement, although the number of countries involved is now greater than four) and the extension of that Agreement to include investment and financial services.



Signed: Title (if any):



Please return your endorsement to CAFCA, at this e-mail address.



We will make use of the endorsements in publicity material; we will put them on our Website; and we are happy to provide you with further information as it comes to hand.



For the list of those who have already signed and for further information on the liberalisation of the Overseas Investment Act, go to http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/OIReview/OIReview2009.html



For further information on the P4 and the proposal for a Free Trade Agreement with the US, go to http://www.nznotforsale.org/