New Zealand opposition sets sovereignty condition for TPP trade deal

New Zealand's main opposition party said Thursday it will withhold support from the controversial 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact if it gives foreign corporations the right to sue the New Zealand government for regulating in the public interest.

The Labour Party, the second biggest party in the New Zealand Parliament, supported free trade, but it would not support a TPP agreement that undermined New Zealand's sovereignty, Labour leader Andrew Little said in a statement.

The Labour caucus had agreed on five key principles that would be non-negotiable bottom lines to protect New Zealand's interests when the agreement finally came before Parliament.

The party also demanded that the TPP should uphold the country' s founding treaty, the Treaty of Waitangi, signed by the British Crown and the indigenous Maori chiefs in 1840.

The other three provisions were: protection of the government pharmaceutical buying agency Pharmac, which negotiates cheap medicines for the public; the country's right to restrict sales of farm land and housing to non-resident foreign buyers; and meaningful gains for New Zealand farm produce exports in tariff reductions and market access.

"The lack of transparency around the government's negotiations with large foreign interests means Kiwis are in the dark about which of their sovereign rights are being gambled away by this government in the hope of better trade conditions," said Little.

"Labour is pro free trade, as evidenced by the China Free Trade Agreement we signed in 2008. But by negotiating the TPP in complete secrecy, the government is creating a level of public unease," he said.

The government had said it expected to release the detail of the agreement after negotiations are complete, but critics say that would be too late to guarantee protections on some of the country's most valuable institutions and rights.

The Labour conditions were issued the day after the ruling center-right National Party and its minor party allies voted down a bill that would have stopped the government acceding to trade agreements that allowed foreign corporations to sue the government.

The Fighting Foreign Corporate Control Bill, introduced by the opposition New Zealand First party, was aimed at blocking provisions known as investor-state dispute settlements within deals like the TPP. Endi