25 Jan 2018

'This is not TPP, this is CPTPP' - Winston Peters

From Morning Report, 7:36 am on 25 January 2018

Foreign Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters has come out in support of the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Mr Peters says the revised deal has "substantial changes" meaning he can now support it, after long opposing it.

"This is not the deal I was vehemently criticising... It's not the deal we inherited," he told Morning Report.

But Mr Peters says he has not read the full text of the new deal.

"I know substantially, about 99 percent of the details, but as to the final words that… have been negotiated now, no I haven't read it and I don't think anybody's actually read the totally and absolutely 100 percent final text at this point in time.

"All its fundamental principles… are all tabulated, so we do know what we are talking about."

The trade deal between New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru has been negotiated for several years. The United States was part of the deal but US President Donald Trump pulled out in 2017.

Speaking from London, Trade Minister David Parker said the important changes in the new agreement included allowing New Zealand law changes on foreign buyers, and limiting the scope of investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS).

"We're perfectly able to continue with our public health and education system, support state-owned enterprises, have Pharmac running as it is - and those sorts of things are not threatened by TPP."

The CPTPP is now expected to be signed in Chile on March 8.