The Trade Minister has labelled those against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "politically irrelevant" and says he wants the "basic political deal" of it done by the end of July.
In a speech to the US/NZ Partnership Forum in Auckland this morning, Tim Groser gave his assessment of how the 12-country deal is progressing.
He says it is "ripe for the picking", but there could still be a few hurdles along the way.
However, the US Senate passing the Trade Promotions Agency legislation which gives US President Barack Obama authority to fast-track trade deals, through the Senate was a major breakthrough.
By the end of July, Mr Groser wants the TPP to be finalised including all chapter texts "leaving only legal rectification by experts to be done thereafter".
He took a swipe at those who have been decrying what effects the TPP will have for New Zealand.
"Here in New Zealand we have anti-trade activists who are relentlessly consistent - they have never supported a single trade agreement and they never will. They are politically irrelevant to my political party."
Despite this, they get "an enormous amount of airplay" and are irrelevant to other "important elements in our democracy", Mr Groser says.
It would be pointless asking them to explain their position, because it is "not an evidence-based fight" but rather about ideology and the role of markets.
Mr Groser says New Zealand would not sign up to an agreement which would undermine the country's drug-buying agency Pharmac, nor would it agree to concessions which would stop the Government putting in "well-designed environmental protections" in place.
"We are not going to sign up to provisions on ISPs that make every mother in Lower Hutt worry that the TPP electronic police are going to fly in from Houston to cart their 16-year-old son off to jail for file-sharing with his girlfriend.
"If and when we get TPP in place, extreme claims that the sky is going to fall in will be made, irrespective of a balanced and sober reading of the final agreed TPP texts. It will be ground hog day for Chicken Licken."
Outspoken TPP critic, Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey says Mr Groser's attack on detractors shows their arguments are "really hitting home".
She says his comments are insulting to all those who have expressed concerns about the TPP.
"It would be much more constructive for the Minister to engage with their genuine concerns."
Dismissing concerns about the agreement was "disingenuous", she said.
Prof Kelsey believed details in some of the leaked documents would have been changed since becoming public.
"That is to be expected, both because governments put their most extreme positions on the table and then claim they have compromised, and because of the severe backlash against leaked proposals from the many communities who would be affected."
Mr Groser had previously rated the TPP deal going through as a seven-out-of-ten and concedes despite the progress "nothing is too big to fail".
"The one thing I can say with near certainty is that in the course of the endgame, something will come out of left-field that we knew about but which no one had seen before as a deal-breaker."
He also conceded a "perfect deal" was impossible because compromises were always going to be required.
3 News
source: newshub archive
