The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a "free trade agreement" which is really about imposing American regulation on the world (or at least the Pacific). Its a bad deal which will be bad for New Zealand. Fortunately, it looks like its dead:
Barack Obama’s ambitions to pass sweeping new free trade agreements with Asia and Europe fell at the first hurdle on Tuesday as Senate Democrats put concerns about US manufacturing jobs ahead of arguments that the deals would boost global economic growth.
A vote to push through the bill failed as 45 senators voted against it, to 52 in favor. Obama needed 60 out of the 100 votes for it to pass.
No fast-track means no negotiations (because why negotiate with a party which cannot keep up its end of the bargain?). And no negotiations means no TPP, meaning no US-style copyright law, no gutting of Pharmac, and no investor-state disputes clause giving foreign corporations the right to overturn our democratically passed environmental, food safety and employment laws. Which sounds like a damn good thing to me.
