July 24, 2015
Government squelches TPPA challenge
New Zealand First has lost a bid to challenge the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal in parliament.
The Government with backing from ACT and United Future voted down MP Fletcher Tabuteau's Fighting Foreign Corporate Control Bill that sought to prohibit New Zealand from entering international agreements that included mechanisms where corporations can sue governments if they don't like law changes.
He says he was deeply concerned at the non-trade elements of the TPPA, which is being negotiated with strict secrecy about its terms.
Meanwhile the Waitangi Tribunal is considering whether to give urgency to claims that the TPPA would compromise the crown's ability to give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi.
It quizzed claimants and the crown at a hearing yesterday on whether it was necessary or practical to rush into the claim.
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