Hamilton residents head off MP Tim Groser over NZ trade deal

NZ PM John Key front and centre at a TPP leaders meeting in 2010. Two more countries have since joined.

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Hamilton NZ residents are attempting to prevent Trade Minister Tim Groser to sign off on a secret Pacific nations trade agreement that will benefit 600 multi-national corporations.

The residents have made Submissions asking Hamilton City Council (HCC) to lobby central government for full disclosure of the TPP and that it be debated in Parliament.

HCC communications advisor Natalie Palmer said the submissions would be spoken to at the hearing for the draft 2014-15 Annual Plan on May 21.

 Democrats For Social Credit Hamilton East candidate Carolyn McKenzie said the TPP negotiations had all been done in secret.

                    
   Carolyn McKenzie is running for                            Vera van der Voort protesting the TPPA on March 1, 2014 outside the    

  Democrats  for Social Credit in the                          Celebrating Age Centre, Victoria Street Hamilton 
  2014 general  elections                                         

“No participating person is allowed to let any of this information out. The government itself will not know what’s in the agreement until four years after they’ve signed it.

“Professor Jane Kelsey at Auckland University can show you how they’re going to dismantle Pharmac from the inside out. New Zealand and Canada are able to get cheap drugs [medications] for their people. This will be the end of it.”

The TPP agreement is made up of 29 chapters. Only five of these chapters actually deal with trade. The remaining 24 chapters deal with restrictions, regulations, and litigation.

TPP legislation could override local legislation through suspension of local laws in any of the signatory countries.

“We actually lose sovereignty. We lose the ability to make our own law,” McKenzie said.

The Renewables Motueka Facebook group member Greg Rzesniowiecki aka gregfullmoon is currently on tour with The Campaign Against Foreign Control (CAFCA). The tour lands in Hamilton on Monday May 12.

Rzesniowiecki said, the Renewables mounted a successful project to get Tasman District Council to look seriously at the TPP.

“We now aim to get all of the remaining councils to do likewise.”

Submissions to councils that have either been accepted or are in process so far include Auckland (06-12-12), Wellington (12-12-13), Nelson, Tasman (05-12-13), Horizons Wairarapa-Wanganui (25-02-14), Palmerston North (24-02-14), Horowhenua, Christchurch, Dunedin (PHA 29-11-13) , Kaitaia, Tauranga (28-03-14), and now Hamilton (02-05-14).

Rzesniowiecki defines the action as a project to engage civil society in a matter of vital public interest.

“TPP is both a problem and it is an opportunity. Burying our heads in the sand over it is not a sane option.”

• The trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being considered by 12 Pacific nations including Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.

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