The Green Party is urging Helen Clark not to sacrifice this country's
long-held nuclear-free policy on the altar of free trade.
"Helen Clark will be under immense pressure when she meets with President
Bush," Green Party Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Keith Locke said today.
"But she must not leave even a crack open in the door."
"We expect the White House to push for what they will portray as a
'symbolic' concession in the nuke-free policy.
"Such a concession would indeed be symbolic: it would symbolise the end of
our most defining foreign policy stand."
If this Government is serious about promoting trade, said Mr Locke, they
should balance the dubious benefit of a US free-trade deal against the
cost of ditching our nuclear free policy, in terms of tourist numbers and
trade opportunities.
"Our much-admired 'clean green' image is greatly helped by being
nuclear-free," said Keith Locke. "Not only could that image be
compromised, but Bush is also likely to try and weaken our stance on GE
and our labelling laws, as part of any free trade deal.
"The Green vision of our future sees trade opportunities opening up around
the world for produce from an organic nation which is both nuclear free
and GE free. Helen Clark should be aware that Mr Bush's agenda is not in
this country's best interests."
Ends