ISDS Case Map
China
Human rights activists will take to the footpath outside Helen Clark's Auckland office on Wednesday to protest against a free-trade deal with China.
We should use what we learned from the ZTE deal to analyze JPEPA. We should demand accountability and transparency in all the deals and contracts that our government enters into.
Chinese repression of Tibetan dissidents has pushed the issue of the impending Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the Peoples Republic of China back into the news. In a diplomatic sidestep both Helen Clark and John Key claim that events in Tibet have nothing to do with free trade. Perhaps that is true, but there are other issues to consider.
Violent protests in Tibet have come at a very awkward time for the New Zealand government with Prime Minister Helen Clark about to sign a free trade deal with China. While other government's around the world were quick to condemn China's violent response to Tibetan protests, Clark was hesitant for most of Monday, saying she did not have enough information.
A Green MP says New Zealand cannot sign a free trade agreement with China while it continues to suppress Tibetan people.
Interview with the UN Conference on Trade & Development's secretary-general, and former WTO chief, Supachai Panitchpakdi.
"People today have fewer and fewer choices to eat garlic grown in Thailand, and this significantly affects food's taste. One third of all garlic available here is no longer grown in Thailand but imported - a lot of it from China," a study on the impact of the Thailand-China FTA said.
The Government has pledged that its free-trade deal with China will not threaten the wages and conditions of New Zealand workers.
New Zealand Green Party MP Keith Locke has welcomed the Government's commitment in the House today to put the free trade agreement with China, to be signed in April, to a Parliamentary vote.
"This trade deal may have a bigger impact on New Zealand than most other government actions this year. Yet the public and parliament are still in the dark about its content only five weeks before it will be signed," says Trade Spokesperson and Green Co-leader Dr. Russel Norman.
