7 March 2015 — Nationwide Day of Action Against TPPA 

Auck­land  — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-auckland/
Hamilton — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/tppa-no-deal-hamilton/
Whi­tianga — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/tppa-no-deal-whitianga/
Taur­anga — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-tauranga/
Rotorua — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-rotorua/
Napi­er — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-napier/
Gis­borne — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-gisborne/
Palmer­ston North — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-palmerston-north/
Whan­ganui — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-whanganui/
Lev­in — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-levin/
Wel­ling­ton — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-wellington/
Nel­son — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-nelson/
Hokitika — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/tppa-no-deal-hokitika‑2/
Christ­ch­urch — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-christchurch/
Timaru — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-timaru/
Duned­in — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/7‑march-dunedin/
Inver­car­gill — http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_event/tppa-no-deal-invercargill/

Thank you to the spon­sors (so far): NZCTU, EPMU, CAFCA, Oxfam, MUNZ, FIRST, TEU.Loc­al meet­ings in Duned­in, Wel­ling­ton and Auck­land
Dr Josh Free­man and Prof Jane Kel­sey speak in Duned­in, Sunday 1 March
Fabi­ans meet­ing Wel­ling­ton, 5.30pm Wed 4 March, Con­nolly Hall, speak­er Jane Kel­sey
Fabi­ans meet­ing Auck­land: ‘High Noon for the TPPA’, 5.30pm Thursday 5 March, Case Room 3, Owen Glenn Build­ing, Auck­land Uni­ver­sity, speak­ers Barry Coates, Pat Neuwelt, Prof Jane Kel­seyTPPA min­is­ters defer decision-mak­ing meet­ing
The clock is tick­ing on Obama’s dead­line of late May/early June to con­clude this deal. The meet­ing of min­is­ters planned for 13–15 March has now been delayed to April. The US and Japan have not yet reached a deal, and without that deal noth­ing else can hap­pen. Jane Kelsey’s Her­ald op ed explains. This makes the timeline even tight­er and increases the chance they can’t pull it off under Obama’s pres­id­ency. That makes our mes­sage to the gov­ern­ment on 7 March all the more import­ant.

Great work by NZ doc­tors
NZ doc­tors spear­headed a let­ter from clini­cians in numer­ous TPPA coun­tries that was pub­lished in the pres­ti­gi­ous Lan­cet last week. Their call for a health impact assess­ment of the TPPA before any­thing is signed cre­ated news around the world. Numer­ous press releases and an opin­ion piece by Dr Josh Free­man in the Domin­ion Post were picked up in a sup­port­ive edit­or­i­al in the Waikato Times. The Age in Aus­tralia ran an edit­or­i­al: ‘Dear­er drugs and movies: will Aus­tralia lose out in the moth­er of all trade agree­ments?’

The Dom­Post sends the Bee­hive a mes­sage
The Domin­ion Post edit­or­i­al on 16 Feb­ru­ary, under the head­line “Trans-Pacific Part­ner­ship: Trade deal secrecy par for the course”, drew links to the secret Sky City deal. It poured scorn on the government’s jus­ti­fic­a­tion for the secrecy based on the EU’s Ombudsman’s report that led the EU to release doc­u­ments in its EU nego­ti­ation.

Pro­test­ers greet John Key in Oxford, Can­ter­bury
Is John Key get­ting the mes­sage?

Cam­paign against for­eign investors’ Bill of Rights

We are about to launch a cam­paign against for­eign investors’ spe­cial rights to sue the gov­ern­ment in dodgy off­shore tribunals under the TPPA and oth­er agree­ments. People have told the gov­ern­ment they oppose investor-state dis­pute set­tle­ment (ISDS). But it con­tin­ues sign­ing them. The latest is the NZ-Korea FTA. Mass sub­mis­sions oppos­ing ISDS in the Korea agree­ment will show the gov­ern­ment what will hap­pen with the TPPA. More soon.Great resources on ISDS
John Oliv­er on Big Tobacco’s tac­tics using ISDS to sink smoke­free laws
Aus­trali­an Sen­ate Debate on ISDS
FTAWatch in Thai­l­and explains the basics of ISDSThe latest des­per­ate White House pro­pa­ganda 
Obama is get­ting des­per­ate. Last week his office sent out a pro­pa­ganda video pitch­ing the TPPA as great for ‘hard­work­ing Amer­ic­ans’.  But hard­work­ing Amer­ic­ans know it will be the same as NAFTA – rich get rich­er, cor­por­a­tions cream the profit, and ordin­ary fam­il­ies and work­ers lose out.