Dear Tim,
Thank you for representing New Zealand in Maui this last week or so during the latest round of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations. It cannot be easy trying to negotiate with the likes of the US, Canada and Japan over trade issues, particularly when it comes to dairy and intellectual property rights.
However, it was very concerning to hear you speaking in the subsequent press conference of investing too much of your time into the negotiations to date to walk away. Your use of this type of language is quite alarming. Are you prepared to sign New Zealand up to the TPPA come hell or high water? What if there are little to no benefits to New Zealand at all? What if signing the TPPA will result in our dairy industry struggling? It's concerning because you seem to be putting ego ahead of what is best for our country, even conceding that you don't feel " ... emotionally in the space of wanting to leave the party".
Please Tim, don't be so bullheaded. Yes you have invested a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears into these negotiations (as well as a lot of money from the public purse in order to travel and stay at multiple rounds of negotiations). Yes, you even wrote the first paper on the agreement. I get that you may feel personally invested in these negotiations and that as a country we have played a significant role in this trade agreement from the very beginning. But is it still worth it?
The more we hear about this agreement the more people are speaking out against it. And those who are speaking out are not just some fringe elements from what your party's leader has referred to as the "loopy left". Rather the voices that are becoming more and more vocal are the voices of business, economic professors, medical doctors, as well as a multitude of everyday normal New Zealanders.
Tim please remember that your time on this will not be wasted if as a country we walked away from the trade deal. There are countless examples in science and research where people were convinced of something but after years, even decades of study and research found that what was initially thought has been proven wrong or too dangerous. Spending time on this trade agreement is not justification enough to continue to push it through if it is fundamentally going to be damaging to our country.
Also concerning is your reference to "winning the war". This isn't some conflict to win. Perhaps you are feeling very emotional and tired but using language like this is not helpful for anyone. The opponents of the deal want to have transparency so that in our democratic nation we can all have a say about the agreement. What is so wrong with that? Surely if there is nothing sinister or shady about this deal, make it public so we can all decide on it. What we are hearing is that the TPPA will erode our nation's sovereignty, make our ability to honour the Treaty nigh on impossible and give far too much power and control to big multi-national corporations. If this is wrong, show us. Put our minds at ease.
Tim, please consider what the best thing for our country is and if needed, have the courage to walk away from a trade deal that threatens our very right to govern ourselves. Please do not sacrifice our nation's sovereignty or our ability to honour the Treaty for a few more markets opening up. It's not worth it.
Thanks,
A concerned voter & average Kiwi.
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