1 Nov: The Labour-led government may have found a way to create a ban on foreign home buyers without breaching the TPP, but its opposition to the ISDS may present a higher hurdle, as Sam Sachdeva reports for Newsroom. One surprise about the Government’s confirmation of its plan to ban foreigners from buying existing houses was how effortlessly it seemed to sidestep its trade obligations.

Making the announcement, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker said the policy would not breach the TPP or any of its other existing trade deals, with the exception of Singapore.

However, an area where the Government will face greater difficulty is in its proposal to renegotiate the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses in the TPP.

The ISDS provisions, which allow foreign investors to take action against a TPP country if they believe it has breached its investment rules, have proved controversial.

| Continue here to read the full article |  November 1,  2017   |||