Imperator Fish on Labour and TPP

Imperator Fish blogs:

People have been telling me that they don’t really understand Labour’s position on the Trans Pacific Partnership. …

Our opposition to the TPP is principled and based on what we think is best for New Zealand. We don’t want New Zealand to sign up to the TPP, but nor would we pull New Zealand out of the deal.

While this is satire, it appears to also be Labour’s actual position,

Labour is not opposed to free trade. We recognise that as an exporting nation we need to honour our international commitments. What kind of example would we be setting as a developed nation if we looked to back out of our international obligations? That’s why a Labour government won’t pull New Zealand out of the TPP. We’ll instead just ignore the bits we don’t like.

Again this appears to be Labour’s actual position.

New Zealand is not a banana republic, and we can’t just tear up the treaties we sign with other countries. That’s why a Labour government will honour all of the international commitments entered into by this government on behalf of New Zealand, even if we don’t like them, unless we change our minds and decide we won’t honour those commitment because we don’t like them.

See, that wasn’t difficult to grasp, was it?

Not at all.