July 27, 2022
Māori Party spurns UK FTA
The Māori Party says it will vote against the free trade agreement with the United Kingdom.
Co-leader Rawiri Waititi says the agreement is likely to benefit Māori primary producers.
But he says Māori weren’t properly consulted during the negotiations.
“We have had an agreement since 1840 with the United Kingdom. It’s called Te Tiritiri o Waitangi. We also have another agreement called He Whakaputanga, and none of these documents has been factored in or even been used as an assessment for this particular trade agreement. We are not holding the UK to account to uphold their crown obligation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” Mr Waititi says.
He says the Treaty of Waitangi exception clause in the FTA isn’t fit for purpose, as can be seen from the way it fails to stop non-New Zealand honey from being sold in the UK labelled as manuka honey