[asia-apec 1566] NZ Herald -

[notoapec at clear.net.nz]

NZ Herald, Auckland
13/09/00 - National seeks Singapore trade deal compromise 
						By VERNON SMALL and BERNARD ORSMAN

National Party leader Jenny Shipley put a proposal to the Government last night that could see the party support the Singapore free-trade treaty.

Mrs Shipley, whose Government initiated the Singapore deal, put the compromise to Labour after renewed sparring in Parliament yesterday over a clause that reserves the right to favour Maori.

Mrs Shipley is understood to be under pressure from former National heavyweights such as Jim Bolger and Bill Birch to back the deal and reach a compromise with Prime Minister Helen Clark.

"There may be able to be a vehicle developed that we could vote on," Mrs Shipley said last night.

National did not want to vote on the detailed trade deal, she said, but might back the specific law changes that would be required for the treaty to be ratified.

Helen Clark indicated she was open to a compromise, suggesting that it might be possible to hold a vote on general support for a free-trade deal with Singapore, which National could back, followed by a separate vote on the treaty provision.

The latter would likely win the support of the Greens and the Alliance, who are otherwise opposed to the free trade deal.

After yesterday's wrangling over arrangements for Maori, Helen Clark raised the prospect of drafting a standard Treaty of Waitangi clause for all appropriate legislation.

She told the Herald: "If the issue of constitutional reform is to be advanced in New Zealand the big issue will be how the treaty will be accommodated, and unless we have some greater understanding of its status in the contemporary setting, it's very hard to have an informed debate."

She was mulling over asking academics to review the treaty's role, partly because of the report of the Waitangi Tribunal into Maori rights to radio spectrum.

The report found the Government did not have an obligation to Maori under the treaty, but the Government went ahead anyway and granted Maori rights to part of the asset at a discounted price.

The lack of a standard Treaty of Waitangi clause has caused difficulties for the Government in its health reform bill as well as the Singapore free trade deal.

Helen Clark yesterday attacked National in Parliament for refusing to back the Singapore deal unless the wording of the Treaty of Waitangi clause was changed. She produced cabinet papers which she said showed National in office had proposed similar wording for the ill-fated Multilateral Agreement on Investment in 1998 and the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Trade and Services in 1994.

Mrs Shipley told Parliament that officials had advised National in the late 1990s against providing "extended" treaty clauses in international agreements.

Helen Clark said the clause in the proposed Singapore deal was inserted on officials' advice, not at the behest of Maori caucus members or the wider Labour caucus.

"Officials are trying to protect our right to pursue policy with respect to treaty settlements and with respect to these social economic disparity programmes."
----------------------------------

storyID: 151143
fromname: GATT Watchdog
frommessage: 
submit.x: 19
submit.y: 5