New Zealand and 10 other nations have settled their differences and are set to sign a new version of the trans-Pacific partnership (TPP) trade pact in March.
NZ First has pledged to back the deal, also supported by National and Labour.
After two days of talks in Tokyo, the 11 nations ironed out the four unresolved issues that remained after negotiations last November.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the phone last week about preserving the country's cultural industry.
The TPP is now officially known as the "Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership", (CPTPP) after the United States pulled out of the agreement in January 2017.
The remaining countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. These nations make up around 13.5 per cent of world GDP.
Trade Minister David Parker confirmed the deal would be signed in Chile on March 8.
"The CPTPP will provide New Zealand exporters with preferential access for the first time into Japan, the world's third-largest economy and our fifth-largest export market," Parker said.
"The CPTPP is even more important to signatory countries given current threats to the effectiveness of the [World Trade Organisation] and rising protectionism in many parts of the world."
"Before the agreement is ratified, New Zealanders will be given the opportunity to better understand what it means for them, their families and the country. We are committed to ensuring this is done in a fair and accessible way," Parker said.
Ardern said the deal was far from ideal but had been improved.
"This is not a perfect deal, but we've improved it vastly, in our view, from where it was before," Ardern said.
The last sticking points involved Canadian protection of its cultural industries, and labour protections in Vietnam.
New Zealand Trade Minister David Parker was on a flight to Europe and not immediately available for comment.
Labour opposed the TPP in opposition, but after negotiating some changes to controversial Investor State Dispute (ISDS) clauses, which allow companies to sue countries, now supports the CPTPP in government.
Companies will no longer be able to sue the Government over contract decisions. A redacted version of the negotiating mandate is available here.
Ardern said the new agreement was a "damned sight better" than what was previously offered.
Ratifying the deal will not require a parliamentary vote, but will require implementation legislation. A parliamentary process involving select committees will likely take place for both ratification and the implementation legislation.
On Wednesday, NZ First leader Winston Peters announced his party, which is in a coalition agreement with Labour, would back the agreement.
"This is a deal we can support," Peters said, praising the efforts of Parker.
"We were never going to support the sellout of our sovereignty, an investor disputes procedure that wasn't fair, all those things have changed now, so we can support it."
He also offered his opinion of why Canada had come back into the fold.
"I think the blunt reality of the uncertainty of NAFTA and being left ou in the cold has seen a dramatic change with Canada," Peters said.
NAFTA or the North American Free Trade Agreement is under threat by Trump.
The Greens, which support the Government in a confidence and supply agreement, are still opposed to the CPTPP.
"We recognise Trade Minister Parker has made significant progress on some controversial provisions in the TPP, including investor-state dispute settlement, and we support those changes. However, we still don't believe there are sufficient safeguards for people and the environment that would enable us to support the deal," Green Party leader James Shaw said.
"New Zealand and the world need to move away from old fashioned trade deals like the TPP and develop new types of agreements that better support global action on things like climate change and inequality."
But Labour's old foe, National, has indicated that it will support the deal, meaning the overwhelming majority of Parliament will be behind it.
National Trade spokesman and former Trade Minister Todd McClay welcomed the news.
"The agreement was a huge focus for the previous government because it will open up improved access to hundreds of millions of consumers around the world.
"It will mean more opportunities for our exporters through significantly improved access to markets including Japan, Vietnam, Mexico and Peru. It puts our exporters on a more level playing field and we know that when given those opportunities, they will succeed."
"That's why it was such a focus of the previous government, despite opposition from all three governing parties."
The Government will be looking to pass any changes to foreign investment rules before ratifying the deal, as its ability to do so will be limited after CPTPP is ratified.
Parker recommended that the select committee looking at his bill to effectively ban foreign buyers of existing homes now allow more time for consideration, given that TPP was not likely to enter into effect until later in 2018.
The deal will come into effect after at least six of the nations ratify it.
Fully 22 provisions of the original TPP agreement have been suspended, up from 20 frozen in November last year. These provisions include controversial pharmaceutical changes and would only be reactivated after renegotiations and if the United States re-entered the pact.
Trade consultant Stephen Jacobi said most New Zealanders would be unaffected by the deal, but for those in exporting industries this would be a boon.
"This is a sizeable agreement and more important for others to come on - countries like Korea, Columbia, Thailand, and potentially the Philippines. These are all subject to caveats but there's a lot of momentum," Jacobi said.
"CPTPP has been constructed to allow others to join in the future. Maybe one day the United States, but not this administration."
Opposition would remain, but "the sharper edges of TPP have been shaved off," he said.
But keen exporters in the dairy industry would not be getting much from the deal.
"I wouldn't expect the dairy farmer to be jumping all over the place, but it's better than it would have been otherwise."
University of Auckland law professor and prominent critic of the TPP Jane Kelsey described the new deal as a "rebranding."
"The rebranding of the TPPA won't fool anyone, especially Labour and New Zealand First supporters who backed those parties because they opposed the original deal," Kelsey said.
"They will also ask, rightly, why the recently elected Canadian government Canada has achieved what the Labour-led New Zealand government said was impossible.
"Canada's new government had the backbone to demand and secure what it describes as "real gains" through side letters.
'Labour needs to explain why it was prepared to cave when Canada stood firm."
Source: Stuff
Key words: new-look, TPP, to be signed, in March, NZ, first now, on board
