This week, San Diego is hosting the latest round of talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Australia and New Zealand are at loggerheads over this secretive new trade treaty spanning the Pacific Rim. The rift between the neighbours over the Trans-Pacific Partnership was revealed after the investment chapter of the agreement was leaked to the public.

Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson has argued that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is the first step toward a regional free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific. But Australia, it appears, has refused to submit to the “investor-state” tribunal system in the negotiations over the agreement.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s response was unequivocal: “I think we’re all in or all out.”

“An exclusion solely for Australia, not for everybody else, is unlikely to be something that we would support,” he added.

Since the leak of the investment treaty, the United States Trade Representative sought to expand the membership, and pressed Canada and Mexico to join the negotiations at the G20. Australia has welcomed the new entrants, as has New Zealand.

The leak of the investment chapter, and the San Diego talks this week, have sparked a wider debate about the agreement. There’s much concern in the Australian and the New Zealand parliaments about the anti-democratic nature of the treaty – with its secrecy, absence of regulatory scrutiny, and lack of wider public participation. There’s also some anxiety about the impact of the agreement on investment, public health, industrial relations, the environment, and intellectual property.