Union, Alliance blast ASEAN FTA
TVNZ
Union, Alliance blast ASEAN FTA
30 August 2008
The Maritime Union has blasted a new free trade agreement between New Zealand, Australia and the ASEAN nations, saying it is bad for workers because it includes Burma.
General secretary Trevor Hanson says the deal will only be good for what he calls the "violently anti-worker regime in Myanmar".
He says the union holds concerns about the treatment of Burmese maritime crews, some of whom work in New Zealand waters.
Hanson reports that the crews have often been been mistreated and abused by the country’s military junta, citing the case of Burmese union organiser Ko Moe Naung, who was tortured to death by the Myanmar military in May 2005.
He says a FTA that includes Myanmar implicitly endorses the dictatorship in power there.
The Alliance Party is also scathing of the negotiation. Spokesman Victor Billot said that the agreement would mean New Zealand’s choice products would only be served to Myanmar’s fascist elites, while cheap products produced by "slave labour" under their regime would result in NZ job losses.
Billot suggested the eventual result may be a free flow of goods, services and human capital between NZ and Myanmar, no matter how violent or repressive the latter’s leadership becomes.
He accused the Labour government of hypocrisy, noting they were comfortable attacking the regimes of Zimbabwe and Fiji, but were more circumspect when there was money in it for New Zealand businesses.
The Maritime Union and the Alliance were also concerned that the deal could result in greater use of short-term, casual labour, driving down wages and conditions.
The accord is expected to be signed at the ASEAN leaders’ summit in Bangkok this December. It encompasses trade in goods and services, investment, financial services, telecommunications, e-commerce, movement of natural persons, intellectual property, and competition policy.
