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Roundup: RCEP talks reignite calls for trade pact transparency in New Zealand

Xinhua, June 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The 16 nations involved in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade talks must be more ambitious in opening their markets, New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay told 500 delegates gathering in Auckland for the latest round of negotiations Monday.

Only through greater liberalization and a focus on reducing non-tariff measures would the full benefits of the agreement be delivered for the 3 billion people in RCEP countries, McClay said in a published speech to welcome the representatives.

Negotiations have been underway for more than three years and important progress has been made but there is still a lot to do, said McClay.

"I have pressed delegates to use this round of negotiations to agree on a concrete path for better offers, so that tangible progress is made in goods and investment," said McClay.

"It is extremely important that RCEP delivers on its full potential and therefore improved market access needs to be agreed."

Representatives also needed to better explain to the public the necessity of trade and the benefits it could bring.

"As host for this round, New Zealand has sought to strike an appropriate balance between providing for this engagement while also ensuring there remains the time necessary to progress the substantive negotiations," he said.

Critics also warned Monday that the RCEP countries needed to be more transparent in their negotiations than the 12 nations involved in the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal that was signed in Auckland in February.

University of Auckland Law Professor Jane Kelsey, a leading TPP critic, said in a statement that details of the latest RCEP negotiations had been "shrouded in secrecy" like the TPP talks.

Kelsey said she had made an official request for McClay to name all the chapters being negotiated, but his office had withheld the titles of seven out of 29 chapters, annexes and schedules.

However, draft texts of the investment and intellectual property chapters had been leaked, showing Japan and the Republic of Korea were seeking to export some of the "worst parts" of the TPP into RCEP, notably provisions relating to medicines and foreign investors' rights and enforcement powers.

Opposition lawmakers in the Green Party said the New Zealand government should take controversial and outdated investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions off the table in the RCEP negotiations.

McClay told Radio New Zealand Monday that RCEP should include ISDS provisions, which critics claim allow foreign corporations to sue governments in secretive extra-judicial tribunals.

"ISDS rules can have chilling effects on governments and even local councils, when the threat of potential litigation stops them from doing what's right for their citizens," Green Party trade spokesperson Kennedy Graham said in a statement.

"ISDS is about much more than trade; it's about rewriting the rules of international relations to take power away from governments and give it to corporations."

The 13th round of the RCEP negotiations will run until June 18. Endit