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.