Trade treaty under further attack

Medical specialists in New Zealand are warning that health outcomes for Māori will suffer a setback if the government signs up to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), according to a story by Laura Bootham for Radio New Zealand.

They are demanding that the government release details of the TPP negotiations so that it can be independently reviewed by the sector.

Ten health organisations and prominent specialists argue that the government is being negligent if it does not take into account its potential impact on Māori.

Oncologist George Laking, of Whakatōhea, said that under the agreement companies, such as tobacco companies, could sue the government if they believed their intellectual property rights were at risk. But that would put Māori at risk, he added.

Laking said health reforms such as those promoted by former Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia, who advocated the introduction of standardized tobacco packaging, could be threatened.

He said international trade treaties had frequently been used by commercial interests that worked against public health interests. “… we’ve particularly seen this with the tobacco industry taking legal action, for example, against the government of Australia over previously signed trade treaties when the country wanted to introduce plain packaging,” he said.

“Any lawsuit that had a chilling effect on tobacco control measures could jeopardise the Smokefree 2025 target which is very important in terms of reducing smoking amongst Māori.”

Laking complained that the process was not transparent to civil society organisations. Only participating governments and industry interests had been party to the draft documents; so it hadn’t been possible to scrutinize those documents independently, from the point of view of indigenous health and indigenous sovereignty.

The full story is at: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/258085/maori-health-fears-under-tpp.