Heads of New Zealand's leading business organisations have thrown their support behind the signing in Auckland tomorrow of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
They also threw their support firmly behind Prime Minister John Key, as he prepares to host the signing in the face of protests.
But New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has described the TPP as an overblown duck yet to fly.
He accused Mr Key of exaggerating the trade benefits of signing up to the TPP.
In the letter to Mr Key, the heads of 28 business organisations said New Zealand stood to gain significantly from TPP, which linked 26% of global GDP, 812million consumers and included markets taking 40% of this country's exports.
New Zealand's major trade interests - meat, horticulture, wine, seafood, forest products, dairy and manufactured goods - would all benefit from the reduction and/or elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers - especially in markets such as Japan, the United States, Canada, Mexico and Peru.
The services sectors would also benefit from improved rules governing trade in services, the letter said.
"It is inconceivable New Zealand would allow our access to markets to be impaired and our competitiveness to decline by standing outside such an important agreement when our competitors are part of it.''
The tangible trade gains had been secured without the need for significant policy change in New Zealand, the business leaders said.
New Zealand was already a largely open market for foreign competition. There were robust laws for environmental and labour protection.
The TPP provided for continuing favourable treatment for Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi, which was fully protected.
The state-owned enterprises already operated along commercial lines and current policies in relation to intellectual property would also require little change, except in the area of copyright.
"We welcome your assurances TPP will not entail increases in the costs of medicines for individual Kiwis. The TPP contains a number of provisions to enhance patient access to innovative healthcare in member countries, including groundbreaking provisions for strong medical device regulatory coherence and systems based on international best practices.''
The business leaders supported the protection investor state dispute settlement provided to investors in New Zealand and New Zealand businesses making investments into other countries.
Those protections had been a feature of previous trade agreements.
"It appears to us the Government's continuing right to regulate in areas such as public health, the environment and land purchases is effectively safeguarded in TPP.''
The checks and balances in the agreement posed little likelihood New Zealand would be successfully challenged, the leaders said.
Foreign direct investment in New Zealand had been an important source of economic growth and job creation over the years and the work to attract it needed to continue.
New Zealand benefited enormously from trade.
It created higher value jobs, ensured New Zealand firms were globally competitive, kept innovating and investing in new technology and the latest management and work-place practices.
New Zealand's integration with the rest of the world was vital for continuing economic success, the leaders said.
"The TPP takes us a step further in that direction and provides a new body of rules for trade and investment, which New Zealand has had a hand in making.''
Green Party health spokesman Kevin Hague said the Government must be 100% clear with New Zealanders about whether it was preparing to cave in to US pressure over extending patent protections in the TPP that would make biologic medicines more expensive.
Reports from the US suggested the pharmaceutical industry was pushing the US Government to force Australia and New Zealand to accept a longer patent period that would raise the cost of medicines, before the deal is signed tomorrow.
Mr Key and Trade Minister Todd McLay had not ruled out changes to patent periods, Mr Hague said.
"The possibility of last-minute changes to suit the pharmaceutical industry's profiteering is exactly the kind of caving in to corporate interests the TPP has pushed New Zealand towards.''
The signatories
Businessnz chief executive Kirk Hope; ExportNZ chairman Sir Ken Stevens; International Business Forum chairman Malcolm Bailey; Federated Farmers president William Rolleston; Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett; EMA chief executive Kim Campbell; Food & Grocery Council executive director Katherine Rich; Dairy Companies Association executive director Kimberly Crewther; NZ Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan; Horticulture NZ president Julian Raine; American Chamber of Commerce in NZ executive director Mike Hearn; Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive Scott Champion; Medical Technology Association chief executive Faye Sumner; Forest Owners Association chief executive David Rhodes; Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce chief executive Peter Townsend; Meat Industry Association chairman Bill Falconer; Horticulture Export Authority chief executive Simon Hegarty; ManufacturingNZ chief executive Catherine Beard; Wellington Employers Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Milford; NZ-US Council chairman Simon Power; NZ Port Company chairman Charles Finny; NZ Shippers Council chairman Mike Knowles; Otago-Southland Employers Association chief executive John Scandrett; Health IT chief executive Scott Arrol; Asean NZ Business Council chairman Alister Lawrence; Japan NZ Business Council chairman Ian Kennedy; Canada NZ Business Council president Henri Eliot; Latin America NZ Business Council chairman Matthew O'Meagher.
