More acute observers suggest an ailing Europe is seeking strategic alliances with the US, with whom it is negotiating a TTIP and other countries that are part of the TPP. Photo / Supplied.
More acute observers suggest an ailing Europe is seeking strategic alliances with the US, with whom it is negotiating a TTIP and other countries that are part of the TPP. Photo / Supplied.
Opinion
Political leaders of the European Union and New Zealand last week agreed to "take steps" towards negotiating a free trade and investment treaty.
Some predicted, prematurely, that it would be much less fraught than the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.
Aspects of the Europeans' approach appear more benign. These largely reflect changes since the European Parliament gained a greater say over such negotiations.
But the power imbalance is just as asymmetrical, and Europe's corporate interests and farming communities are as influential as their counterparts in the US and Japan. Indeed, some are alter egos of the same transnational corporations.
The obvious question is what the EU has to gain from an agreement with New Zealand, which has almost no tariffs and where Europe is already our second-largest source of foreign investment.
The EU says it's a natural alliance of close partners that "share Europe's values".
More acute observers suggest an ailing Europe is seeking strategic alliances with the US, with whom it is negotiating a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and other countries that are part of the TPP.
Almost all the same countries are already working on another mega-deal, the Trade in Services Agreement.
These negotiations are intimately related. Known as mega-regionals, the world's declining but still powerful superpowers are trying to consolidate new global rules that entrench and advance their economic interests.
In doing so, they will bypass the World Trade Organisation, where similar proposals have been blocked by the newly ascendant Brics bloc - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The game plan is to import the new rules back into the WTO.
What might an EU-NZ agreement contain? Expect very similar rules to the TPP that aim to benefit pharmaceutical companies, finance, IT, retail, transport and express delivery sectors. Equally, expect undeliverable rhetoric about potential gains for New Zealand.
The joint official statement foreshadowed "a deep and comprehensive, high-quality" agreement which for National, Labour and other cheerleaders means market access for agriculture, especially dairy.
The EU's trade and investment strategy says the commission will request authorisation to negotiate free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand, "taking into account the EU agricultural sensitivities".
Further, the EU routinely demands strong protections for geographic indicators, such as for feta and camembert, something New Zealand just as staunchly resists.
Yes, there will be some positive differences from the TPP. The most obvious is the commitment from EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom to publish "key negotiating texts from all negotiations".
Groser abandoned that position in the litigation over the Official Information Act when faced with evidence his predecessors had released extensive documentation in such negotiations. Photo / AP
That might seem a large rat to swallow for our Trade Minister Tim Groser, whose claim that negotiations cannot be conducted that way has been treated as received wisdom by many here.
Actually, Groser quietly abandoned that position in the litigation over the Official Information Act when faced with evidence his predecessors had released extensive documentation in such negotiations.
It will be impossible to maintain the same shroud of secrecy in negotiations with the EU, as the European Parliament won't tolerate it.
But the European Commission has still not gone as far as the European Ombudsman recommended back in January, when she said the potentially far-reaching impacts of the TTIP negotiations required almost full transparency.
The second difference involves the powers for foreign investors to enforce special protections through international arbitration.
This has become a huge issue in the EU, especially since Germany faced two disputes over climate change mitigation policies and closure of nuclear power plants.
Last month hundreds of thousands protested against TTIP in Berlin. The commission has tried to defuse opposition to investor-state dispute settlement by suggesting a formalised adjudication process that fails to address the key problems with the system.
The European Council has yet to decide to formally launch negotiations and then agree on the scope and overall approach for Australia and New Zealand.
The EU's negotiations with India have dragged on for eight years, those with Asean were suspended in 2009 and just resumed. New Zealand-EU negotiations are destined to be as long and vigorously contested as the TPP.
