ISDS Case Map
New Zealand
New Zealand won't sign up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal unless it includes an agreement to progressively abolish tariffs on agricultural products exported to North America, Prime Minister John Key said today.
A new giant Asian free trade negotiation was launched last night at the end of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, with a goal to complete the deal by the end of 2015.
Vladimir Putin has serious form in the macho stakes: He's tranquilised a Siberian tiger to save a TV crew, attached a tracking device to a polar bear, ridden horses bare-chested and was this week filmed at the sharp end of a motorised hang-glider (suitably frocked-up in a white jump suit and goggles) teaching young cranes to fly on a new migration path.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key says a free trade deal with Russia "hangs in the balance" after Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov expressed nervousness about the deal, especially the impact on agricultural exports.
Sixteen nations home to roughly half the world's population have agreed "in principle" to create a free trade area spanning Asia, according to Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan.
The proposed free trade agreement between India and New Zealand has hit a speed breaker due to the Centre's silence on opening the country's dairy and farm goods sector to imports.
Trade Negotiations Minister Tim Groser admits that the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal involves some loss of sovereignty for New Zealand - but says that is normal for trade agreements.
As activists and the Government clash over the alleged inclusion of investor protections in the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, a legal expert says many foreign investors already have that right
The leaked document on the US Public Citizen website confirm the worst fears about the Trans Pacific Partnership talks. The leaked text, and Public Citizen’s analysis of the text can be accessed here.
The Trans Pacific Partnership agreement being negotiated at present would open up New Zealand Governments to litigation for tightening regulations in such areas as gas and oil and exploration or even introducing a capital gains tax, according to Professor Jane Kelsey of Auckland University.
