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Talks failure widens New Zealand political split over TPP trade pact

Xinhua, August 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Opposition lawmakers stepped up calls for New Zealand to walk away from the controversial 12- nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks Monday as the government showed its determination to secure the trade deal quickly.

Trade Minister Tim Groser came under most of the criticism after the talks ended in deadlock in Hawaii at the weekend amid a raft of unresolved issues, including access for dairy products, which New Zealand insisted was essential for any deal.

Prime Minister John Key told Radio New Zealand on Monday he was confident New Zealand would be able to secure a deal on dairy that the sector could live with and a good deal on everything else.

"I don't think New Zealand's ever going to be left out ... We won't get everything we want, but no country is - but we are going to get something that I think over time will be very beneficial to New Zealand exporters," said Key.

However, with Canada looking at a general election in October and the U.S. presidential election cycle soon to get underway, pressure was building to secure a deal sooner rather than later.

The opposition Green Party said the government and its negotiators appeared to be persisting with the "shoddy deal" for ideological reasons.

The talks had failed in spectacular fashion, and the government had strong reasons to abandon them, including patent provisions that would drive up medicine costs and investor state dispute clauses that would allow corporations to sue the government.

"Even at this stage, there is nothing lost if New Zealand walks away," Green Party trade spokesperson Russel Norman said.

The opposition New Zealand First party said TPP had failed because the big countries like United States, Japan and Canada tried to twist it to their advantage.

Party leader Winston Peters called on the government to go back to the original four countries Singapore, Brunei, Chile and New Zealand of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, or P4, from which the TPP developed, plus Australia, and "reboot" the talks.

"This way, we would have the aspiration and ground rules unambiguously set without sovereignty-threatening projects and agendas," he said. Endi