Free-Trade Agreement: Missed opportunity to honour Te Tiriti

Pita Tipene at Motatau Marae.

Today's announcement of the free trade agreement with the United Kingdom has been described as "a missed opportunity" to set the bar for honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

New Zealand signed a historic free-trade agreement with the United Kingdom that will remove almost all tariffs from most exports.

"Māori should have been celebrating this trade deal as a high point that sets a new bar for a 180-year relationship with the Crown, a model for how Māori rights and responsibilities are protected in these agreements," Waitangi National Board Trust member Pita Tipene said.

"That hasn't happened and it's a missed opportunity. If not with this FTA, when?"

Ngā Toki Whakarururanga (NTW) is an entity being established after the lengthy Waitangi Tribunal inquiry on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Co-convenors are Pita Tipene and Moana Maniapoto.

"Since the tribunal hearing, we've been working with trade officials to build a better Tiriti-based relationship," Maniapoto said.

"We give them credit for trying but much of what we see in this FTA is just symbolic."

NTW is concerned for threats to fundamental Māori rights and values, especially intellectual property, digital trade and foreign investment.

The Waitangi Tribunal's report last year on the TPPA/CPTPP said the need to protect mātauranga Māori from digital trade rules was so fundamental it shouldn't be traded off against any other interests. Therefore, the Crown had breached its Tiriti obligations.

"It's done the same thing again here," Maniapoto said.

"As for Māori making economic gains from the FTA, the only figure we've seen, from research for the Taumata, is a $13 million increase in GDP for a Māori asset base of $68 billion.

"In today's terms that is about ten Auckland houses."

Tipene says NTW is determined to hold the Crown to account over Tiriti obligations.

"These are intergenerational responsibilities we carry," he said.

"Māori need an independent seat at the negotiating table so we can speak for ourselves and protect our rights and interests."