.
‘The
National government is striking a brick wall in getting major concessions on
dairy from the US and Japan in the
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). It will have an equal or greater battle
in its plans for a free trade agreement with the European Union’, said
Professor Jane Kelsey from the University
of Auckland , in response
to reports that such negotiations are possible.
The
EU has consistently protected its agriculture sector at the multilateral level
during the Uruguay and the Doha rounds of
multilateral negotiations. That position has carried through in its various
bilateral agreements.
‘Some
of the EU’s standard demands will conflict directly with the proposed TPPA’
Professor Kelsey says.
‘In
particular, the Europeans require their agreements to contain strong
protections for geographical indicators, such as the traditional names of
European cheeses like camembert and parmesan. New
Zealand , Australia
and the US
have been pushing for the opposite rules in the TPPA.’
According
to Professor Kelsey negotiations with the Europeans would, like the TPPA, range
far beyond ‘free trade’.
Europe’s
pharmaceutical companies are just as aggressive as US Big Pharma in the US .
The
European services lobby will also push for sweeping rules that lock in
deregulatory frameworks for banking and other financial services, privatised
water concessions, public private partnerships, telecommunications, and much
more.
‘These
are all areas where New Zealand needs a free hand to remedy the problems of
light handed and risk tolerant regulation of recent decades’, Professor Kelsey
observed.
‘On
the positive side of the ledger, the EU has refused to agree to US demands for
a similar level of secrecy in the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership to that which applies for the TPPA.'
The
Europeans have already agreed to release the draft investment chapter for
public comment before it is tabled in the negotiations. The European Parliament
can be expected to subject any talks to intensive scrutiny.
‘Equally
significant are the announcements from France
and Germany this month that
they will not accept investor-state dispute settlement in any agreement with
the US .
That is further proof that the tide is turning on this particularly iniquitous
feature of recent commercial treaties.'
However,
a similar approach in an EU-NZ agreement would not protect New Zealand
from investor claims by European firms, according to Professor Kelsey.
'Many European their firms span the Atlantic and could use a backdoor
route to sue the New Zealand
government under the TPPA. ’
The
TPPA negotiations with the US
and ten other countries have already taken four years without any resolution.
Professor Kelsey predicts that any negotiation with the EU would drag on
interminably.
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