[asia-apec 1521] CAFCA on Singapore-NZ FTA

[APEC Monitoring Group]

Press release from Campaign of Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA)



Media release posted for CAFCA



17 August 2000
Chief Reporter
SINGAPORE TREATY HAS FOREIGN INVESTMENT IMPLICATIONS

The Government is currently negotiating a "closer economic partnership" with
Singapore. It is shrouded in secrecy. Even National released the text of the
infamous Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), in the late 1990s.
Labour/Alliance is showing the undemocratic traits of all its predecessors
on the subject of "free" trade.

Because it is secret, the treaty's implications are neither known nor
understood by the public (or MPs). It provides a very big foot in the door
for similar pacts with the whole SE Asian region, with South America, and
the US. It has already been described as a "Trojan horse" by the current
head of the Asia 2000 Foundation, who was NZ's chief negotiator at the GATT
Uruguay Round (Tim Groser, address to NZ Institute for Policy Studies,
15/3/00; "Beyond CER: new trade options for NZ").

The Alliance is critical to whether this precedent setting treaty passes or
fails. Its silence on the subject has been deafening. Yet the Alliance was
active in the successful campaign which defeated the MAI. Jim Anderton is a
keen cricketer, so he should understand that it was an attempt to win the
game with a six; they're now trying singles.

The Singapore treaty is not just about trade. It has major implications for
foreign investment. Building on the model of the MAI and the aborted
Millennium Round of the WTO, it will doubtless offer features such as no
rollback and national treatment for Singaporean investors here. Meaning that
it will be impossible to do anything substantive to repair the damage done
by 15 years of unrestricted foreign takeover of NZ, and illegal to give any
preference to NZ companies over Singaporean ones.

Singapore is already a major player among NZ's new transnational owners -
Singaporeans partly or fully own assets including Brierley's (which has
moved to Singapore), Air New Zealand, Auckland Airport, DB, Corbans, Union
Shipping, Sealord, CDL (the largest hotel owner in NZ), Computerland, large
numbers of commercial buildings, rural land and resorts. And some of that
"investment" has been controversial - the Singaporean partner of Tommy
Suharto bought the multimillion dollar Lilybank resort from him for $1.

So this treaty, if passed, will contribute to: the crippling balance of
payments deficit (as profits haemorrhage out of the country), to the
unemployment that follows foreign "investors" as they rationalise,
restructure and relocate their bargain buys, and to the creation of more
menial, lowpaid jobs. These are some of the reasons why this treaty must be
made public, with its implications clearly spelled out to Parliamentarians
and public alike, and why it must be defeated. To discourage the others.

Murray Horton
Secretary/Organiser
Ph (03) 3663988 day/night