November 10, 2016
TPPA stalled but process not trumped
In just over two months Donald Trump will be in the White House, but that doesn’t mean the threat posed to Maori by the Trans Pacific Partnership has gone away.
Prime Minister John Key today acknowledged the chance of the 12-country trade pact being ratified is close to zero, as the Republican president-elect made his opposition very clear on the campaign trail.
But Jane Kelsey from the University of Auckland says some of the most alarming aspects of the TPPA are being pursued in other treaties, such as the Trade in Services Agreement that New Zealand wants to be part of.
"We got a leak through Wikileaks of that and the government has tabled the same flawed Treaty of Waitangi exception there without having done any of the follow up that the Waitangi Tribunal advised it to do in trying to find more effective protections for Maori and better processes. The TPPA is a symptom of a process that continues to roll on," she says.
Professor Kelsey says Donald Trump is a businessman who made money by wheeling and dealing and not paying tax, and he’s likely to take the same approach to the presidency.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com