Hard sell tipped to follow TPP deal

Photo / Brett Phibbs

Government has PR campaign ready to go but hoped-for gold-plated agreement on dairy fails to happen.

A historic TPP deal among 12 countries was set to be finalised early today after five tough years of negotiations and a marathon final session in Atlanta.

The Trans Pacific Partnership will deliver New Zealand its long sought after free-trade deal with the United States, the largest economy in the world, and Japan, the third-largest economy, as well as Canada, Mexico and Peru.

Other TPP players are Australia, Singapore, Brunei, Chile, Vietnam and Malaysia, all of whom New Zealand has dealings with.

New Zealand already has a free-trade agreement with the world's second-largest economy, China, which is not part of the TPP.

Trade Minister Tim Groser will be heading back to New Zealand from the United States today to begin the hard sell on the deal, which has to be turned into text and released within 30 days.

It is understood the Government has a public relations programme ready outlining in detail how it believes New Zealand will be better off in the deal, not outside it.

It does not intend to leave a vacuum for the next month for opponents to fill.

The most contentious part of the deal is the Investor State Dispute Procedure, however Mr Groser has remained confident the detail of the agreement will allay people's fears on that score.

It is thought New Zealand has had to settle for something akin to a bronze deal on dairy products rather than the gold-plated one it insisted early in the negotiations that it would get.

But the overall deal will be sold to the public on the basis of better-than-hoped-for gains in other sectors.

The Government has already said an increase in costs for pharmaceuticals as a result of IP changes under TPP would be met by the Government, not patients.

Mr Groser, a former professional trade negotiator, has played a pivotal role in the negotiations, led by US Trade Representative Mike Froman. The three most difficult issues in the end were the patents on biologics, medicines made from living organisms, rules of origin for vehicles, and dairy access.

Before talks on dairy intensified yesterday, he told the Herald the negotiations had "the smell of a situation we occasionally see which is that on the hardest core issues, there are some ugly compromises out there".

That meant everyone had to eat "dead rats".

In the event of a failure at Atlanta, the talks could have gone another round at Apec in Manila, but the longer they dragged on, the closer it would get to the United States presidential contest and the more difficult it could be to get a deal through the US Congress.