No Ordinary Deal
Unmasking the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement
Jane Kelsey
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is no ordinary free
trade deal. Billed as an agreement fit for the twenty-
first century, no one is sure what that means. For its
champions in New Zealand a free trade agreement
with the US is a magic bullet – opening closed doors
for Fonterra into the US dairy market. President
Obama sells it as the key to jobs and economic
recovery, while protecting home markets. Australia
hails it as a foundation stone for an APEC-wide free
trade agreement.
None of these arguments stacks up. All nine participant
countries except Vietnam are heavily liberalised,
deregulated and privatised.* They already have many
free trade deals between them. Who really believes
that US dairy markets will be thrown open to New
Zealand, or that China, India and Japan will sign onto
a treaty they had no role in designing?
No Ordinary Deal unmasks the fallacies of the TPPA.
Experts from Australia, New Zealand, the US and
Chile examine the geopolitical and security context of
the negotiations and set out some of the costs for New
Zealand and Australia of making trade-offs to the US
simply to achieve a deal.
‘Trade’ agreement is a misnomer. The TPPA is not
primarily about imports and exports. Its obligations
will intrude into core areas of government policy and
Parliamentary responsibilities. If the US lobby has its
way, the rules will restrict how drug-buying agencies
Pharmac (in New Zealand) and the Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme (in Australia) can operate, and the
kind of food standards and intellectual property laws
we can have. Foreign investors will be able to sue the
government for measures that erode their investment.
The TPPA will govern how we regulate the finance
industry or other services, along with our capacity to
create jobs at home.
Above all, No Ordinary Deal exposes the contradictions
of locking our countries even deeper into a neoliberal
model of global free markets – when even political
leaders admit that this has failed.
*The US, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Chile,
Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Malaysia joined in October 2010.
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The Contributors
Jane Kelsey, Bryan Gould, Patricia Ranald,
Lori Wallach, Todd Tucker, José Aylwin, Paul
Buchanan, John Quiggin, Warwick Murray,
Edward Challies, David Adamson, Geoff
Bertram, Tom Faunce, Ruth Townsend,
Susy Frankel, Jock Given, Ted Murphy, Bill
Rosenberg, Nan Seuffert
–
Contents
Introduction, Jane Kelsey
1. Bryan Gould: Political Implications for New
Zealand
2. Patricia Ranald: The Politics of the TPPA in
Australia
3. Lori Wallach and Todd Tucker: US Politics and
the TPPA
4. José Aylwin: The TPPA and Indigenous
Peoples: Lessons from Latin America
5. Paul G. Buchanan: Security Implications of
the TPPA
6. John Quiggin: Lessons from the Australia–US
Free Trade Agreement
7. Warwick Murray and Edward Challies: The
TPPA, Agribusiness and Rural Livelihoods
8. David Adamson: Quarantine and Food Safety
Issues in a TPPA
9. Geoff Bertram: Border Carbon Adjustments
and Climate Change Policy
10. Thomas Faunce and Ruth Townsend: Public
Health and Medicine Policies
11. Susy Frankel: Intellectual Property in New
Zealand and the TPPA
Jock Given: Culture and Information
13. Ted Murphy: Government Procurement and
Labour Issues
14. Bill Rosenberg: International Capital and
Investment
Jane Kelsey: Trade in Services
16. Nan Seuffert and Jane Kelsey: The TPPA and
Financial Sector Deregulation
Epilogue, Jane Kelsey
Endnotes
List of Abbreviations
List of Figures and Tables
List of Contributors
–
Professor Jane Kelsey teaches at the University
of Auckland. Known for her research on policy
and politics, she is the author of several books
shaping the critical debate both locally and
internationally. The New Zealand Experiment
(AUP/BWB, 1995) struck a chord with its
analysis of the 1980s political ‘experiment’,
and went into several reprints. Reclaiming the
Future (BWB, 1999), co-published with the
University of Toronto Press, took a hard look at
globalisation and its economic impacts. Ranging
over law, economics and politics, Jane Kelsey’s
sharp intellect brings important analyses to the
globalising world.
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Full information sheet: NoOrdinaryDealinformationsheet.pdf