The American people have been promised to have a copy of the TPP agreement before the President signs it. Just because New Zealanders are lead around by the nose and don't care about their democracy, doesn't mean Americans are the same way.
New Zealand can be trading partners with whomever it wants. It shouldn't feel as though it has to wait for the US. After all there is the WTO.
February 6, 2015
By Jane Kelsey
Time is running out for the controversial (click here) Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). Negotiators in New York last week were under intense pressure to finalise the list of unresolved matters for ministers to decide in March.
The United States has a serious deadline. If the TPP is to form part of President Barack Obama's legacy, it must be concluded in the next three months. The text and a cost-benefit analysis by the International Trade Commission needs to reach Congress by around August. Once that window is past, Obama is likely to lose interest in spending political capital on pushing it through, knowing his successor would gain any kudos.
Whether the parties can achieve that is a political question. The technical work is largely over. One major obstacle to the political endgame is the reassertion of core democratic principles, evidenced by two recent developments....
New Zealand can be trading partners with whomever it wants. It shouldn't feel as though it has to wait for the US. After all there is the WTO.
February 6, 2015
By Jane Kelsey
Time is running out for the controversial (click here) Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). Negotiators in New York last week were under intense pressure to finalise the list of unresolved matters for ministers to decide in March.
The United States has a serious deadline. If the TPP is to form part of President Barack Obama's legacy, it must be concluded in the next three months. The text and a cost-benefit analysis by the International Trade Commission needs to reach Congress by around August. Once that window is past, Obama is likely to lose interest in spending political capital on pushing it through, knowing his successor would gain any kudos.
Whether the parties can achieve that is a political question. The technical work is largely over. One major obstacle to the political endgame is the reassertion of core democratic principles, evidenced by two recent developments....
