James Murray on the TPP
January 25th, 2012 at 3:00 pm by David FarrarJames Murray, TV3′s online editor, has done a very well researched and comprehensive blog post on the proposed TPP free trade agreement.
I am a huge supporter of free trade and my ideal free trade agreements simply consist of saying “You can sell our residents us anything you want that is legal and safe and we can sell your residents anything we want that is legal and safe”. Of course then up to individual consumers what they choose to buy and import.
But free trade agreements are rarely that simple. They have a mixture of good and bad stuff in them. Overall the ones we have signed have been massively beneficial for New Zealand such as CER and the China FTA. But that does not mean all future ones will be. Murray points out some areas of concern in the TPP:
Hughes points out that proposed changes to copyright law could see the international copyright term (the author’s life plus 50 years) extended for another twenty years.
This would mean that no new works would enter the public domain in any of the countries signed to the TPP until 2033.
To steal a quote from the analysis linked to above – lengthening copyright terms would “impose severe costs on the American public without providing any public benefit. It would supply a windfall to the heirs and assignees of dead authors and deprive living authors of the ability to build on the cultural legacy of the past”.
What would this mean for publishing in New Zealand?
Books by James K. Baxter, Dame Ngaio Marsh and Ronald Morrieson, all soon to come into the public domain, would stay in copyright.
The US in 1998 increased the term of copyright from 75 years to 95 years, partly at the lobbying by Disney to stop early Mickey Mouse works entering the public domain. This was in my opinion not needed, as Mickey Mouse would still be a trademark owned by Disney and not able to be used by others.
Critics of the TPP point out that the agreement spelled out in the leaked document would lead to a situation where pharmaceutical companies would be able to extend patents on medicines more easily and also delay generic drugs from hitting the market.
Ever picked up a camera or mobile phone from a Parallel Import shop for less than an approved supplier?
According to the analysis provided by infojustice.org this could become a thing of the past as a consequence of Article 4.2 of the leaked document would be an international legal requirement “to provide copyright owners an exclusive right to block parallel trade”.
January 25th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
New Zealand retailers are fighting to have GST added to all overseas purchases, be they DVDs not stocked in this country or a gadget that is hundreds of dollars cheaper. Something tells me they’d be very happy to see parallel importing wiped out – anything that threatens their precious captive market is worth fighting against, competition or consumer standards of living be damned.
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
The problem with free trade is that it’s rarely free – the big nations set the agenda while the small ones fight for the scraps. I don’t suppose the US are planning to remove their agricultural subsidies, but they would like us to grant more monopoly power to big Pharma.
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
No “free” trade with the US, it’s not a free country, and as a small country we will always lose to the crony capitalists over there. I rather would spend the money to get free trades with South America or Africa.
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
David Farrar says:- “I am a huge supporter of free trade and my ideal free trade agreements simply consist of saying “You can sell our residents us anything you want that is legal and safe and we can sell your residents anything we want that is legal and safe”
So what if the products being imported are government subsidized for instance? Wouldn’t that be unfair to local producers?
Personally, I think Switzerland has taken the right approach and simply worked out bi-partisan trade agreements rather than entering into blanket agreements like NAFTA.
So if beef from country X has a 20% subsidy, you could in all fairness protect your local beef industry by slapping on a 20% import tariff. Yup, good old reciprocal protectionism.
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 4:05 pm
We’re not going to get a free trade deal with the US, even when we’ve done exactly what the US media companies want. Our S92a hasn’t helped, arresting Dotcom won’t help.
They don’t care, and they probably don’t want a free trade agreement. They’re in a bit of debt themselves, and I get the feeling that the majority of American voters don’t want to “lose even more jobs” to Nu Zeelanders.
We should give up trying, or only accept on our own terms. I wish a political party would show some guts in this, and tell them where to stick their laws.
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Free trade is fine if it’s with free countries which have open and free economies. That definitely excludes China.(and probably alot of others too)
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Would like to clarify what you mean – DPF has a few times cited figures showing $ exports to China before and after the FT agreement where exports have gone up massively, are you saying this hasn’t been beneficial to NZ?
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Others would be able to use Mickey Mouse (early designs, at least – presumably later revisions would have a later copyright) without Disney’s permission, but they would not be able to use Mickey Mouse in advertising or marketing, as this would be trademark infringement. Compare with, say, Hewlett-Packard’s “HP” trademark – I can write HP wherever I like, but I cannot start a computer business that advertises with the letters “HP.
The Captain Marvel case acts as a helpful guide here. DC Comics purchased the company that created Captain Marvel (the big red guy with the lightning bolt on his chest), so DC Comics owned the copyright. They published comics using the name of the character, and so they also had a trademark on the name “Captain Marvel”. After WWII, superhero comics dropped in popularity, and sales declined. The Captain Marvel comic was cancelled. After some years, the trademark on the name lapsed. Marvel Comics seized on this opportunity to create their own “Captain Marvel” character (an alien with cosmic powers), and published comics using the “Captain Marvel” name. Marvel has held the trademark ever since, and so DC is forced to publish its own Captain Marvel comics using the “Shazam” name (Shazam being a secondary character in the comic books, as well as the magic word used to activate Captain Marvel’s powers).
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
stephen
Vote:What I said is quite clear. I’m not saying that NZ exports have not benefitted,quite obviously some sectors have done very well out of Chinas’ emergence from behind the bamboo curtain. That does not change the fact that China is not a free and open economy.
January 25th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
The issue with imposing tariffs on imports is that they’re mathematically equivalent to taxes on exports (from a balance of trade perspective).
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
@Scott Chris
I used to have this argument with folks about French cars (back in the day when owning anything French wasn’t popular in NZ). I always used to argue that every Peugot cost the French govt about $1000, and a) every one that we buy takes us closer to bankrupting them, and b) if they’re dumb enough to subsidise me buying a car, why would we try to stop them?
In short, if they want to subsidise exports to us, why would we care? Our people can move on to making something else, and we’ll take their subsidy. When they go bankrupt and stop subsidising, we can move back to making what we were before, and we’ll be richer in the amount of the subsidy.
Free trade (for imports) is always in your own advantage, even if you unilaterally remove tariffs and subsidies. Basic economic truth.
On parallel importing – I see this as very important to retain. At the moment, you can buy many products from online stores in the USA at lower than the wholesale cost in NZ. Parallel importing acts to constrain that, and therefore to help retaining in NZ survive. Without parallel importing, people will just buy stuff on the web.
Vote:January 25th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
I woul;dn’t hold you breath waiting for Uncle Sam to lighten up. Uncle sam is a bully and getting worse. But it’s fast goin broke soin a couple more years of Obama they will look a lot like Greece.
Vote:Obama said today the no way was he going back to the polices that caused the failure of banks., apparently meaning the Repubs.
Problem is Clinto and his cronies were responsible for those policies.
January 26th, 2012 at 12:43 am
IMO FTAs simply put us on the fast track to a ‘New World Order’ despotic one world government. If you don’t know this you’re just ignorant, but much of the blame for that can be laid at the door of the msm.
Just one piece of evidence should be enough to stop people from rubbishing this idea.
http://www.rense.com/general71/amaz.htm
Vote: