7 January 2019
For immediate release
Launch of JusTrade.nz heralds a new campaign for a 21th century trade agenda
The website JusTrade.nz, launched today, heralds a new forward-looking campaign for a progressive 21st century trade
agenda.
The JusTrade project builds on a two-day hui in late October that debated what an alternative and progressive trade
strategy for Aotearoa New Zealand should look like. The live-streaming attracted over 17,000 page views. The website
carries videos and transcriptions of all ten panels.
Hui convenor, University of Auckland law professor Jane Kelsey, says ‘for too long we’ve been told there is no
alternative to the current model, epitomised in the recently adopted Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.’
‘Today, the global trade regime faces an existential crisis. Mega-negotiations are being abandoned, delayed or pared
down, and the World Trade Organization is fractured and paralysed.’
‘Critique is no longer enough. If anything is to really change, we need to step away from the existing framework and
take a first-principles approach to rethinking what will work for the 21st century.’
‘The message from the hui was very clear: we need to generate real alternatives that confront climate change and
disruption, while supporting sustainable local businesses and jobs that pay a living wage, in a nation founded on te
Tiriti o Waitangi.’
‘A new progressive vision would see trade as driven by relationships, within our communities and with the wider world,
that enable innovation, resilience and wellbeing, instead of enabling the corporations and markets that currently
dominate our trade policy.’
‘The recent hui and the new website are a first step in the JusTrade project, bringing together experts on economics and
business, geopolitics, te Tiriti, climate and environment, livelihoods, development, knowledge and health and
wellbeing.’
Over the next few weeks, further media releases will highlight specific aspects of the new vision, starting with
contributions on the economy and on climate change.
Two other targeted initiatives - on regulation of the digital economy and on alternatives to international investment
agreements - will be launched to coincide with international forums in which the New Zealand government will be taking
part.
The project will also monitor and support Stage Two of the Waitangi Tribunal claim on the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Agreement (Wai-2522), and other Maori initiatives.