The NHS is well loved by the British public. It is seen as something which makes British society decent and civilised. That the NHS is now stretched and badly underfunded is seen as a national outrage. Fears of even further privatisation of the NHS due to a US trade deal has unsurprisingly made the NHS the number one election issue.
Some aspects of the TPP no-one’s mentioning.
This is going to end well…
One of these principled statements is not like the other.
I’ve been involved in exporting from NZ for more than 35 years in everything from manufacturing to software. I support free trade. It is always embarrassing watching idiots waffling on a subject without any facts. But that is what you get with the secrecy of the TPP restraint of trade negotiations.
The great tragedy in New Zealand trade policy came in the 1990s when we almost literally gave away the farm, dismantling most of our tariffs unilaterally to “demonstrate” how much fun life is with no tariffs. You can’t get much more fundie than that. And now – quelle surprise – we have basically no cards to play when negotiating with other countries. Who would have thought it?
There is a false perception that free trade agreements are vital to our economy. Our open borders may make us the 3rd easiest country to do business in but that doesn’t mean that is an economic advantage, it actually exposes us to exploitation and is one of the reasons why our Current Account deficit is one of the largest in the OECD. The real fear should not about the loss of FTA’s but the real consequences of having them in the first place.
Taiwanese legislature occupied. Could be news…
Last week there was a Fabian debate between Wayne Mapp and Jane Kelsey about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that New Zealand started originally as a free trade agreement. Bearing in mind the short notice there were a quite credible audience. However to enhance the audience, Lyn Collie was inveigled into filming and editing the debate. Here is the film of the debate..
My current view is that the TPPA will provide intergovernmental welfare for Fonterra and farmers while destroying our rapidly expanding technical export industry. It just leaves us as a farm for the world just as we we used to be the farm for the UK. We remain susceptible to policy changes from outside destroying our economy. But maybe this public debate on Wednesday evening in Auckland will provide more information.
Free trade is meant to be about opening up markets for our exports so that we can improve our trade balance and, ultimately, become less indebted as a nation. Yet the opposite seems to be happening. Darkhorse shows that this is the experience of all countries that lower their trade barriers in a still largely protectionist world.
Like the ACC, Pharmac is a Kiwi institution that delivers benefits to everyone at a lower cost than other countries. National has got ACC on the butcher’s block. We must make sure that Pharmac doesn’t follow.
