The Labour Party says the TPP deal on the table is not the deal they sought when over a decade ago it helped kick off the negotiations that led to last week's trade agreement.

But Labour Leader Andrew Little said the TPP deal reached is a world of difference from what was started by Phil Goff when it just involved Brunei, Singapore, and Chile.

He said a large number of other things have been put on the table, largely at the behest of the USA.

"We know that there was always a wish to get the US around the table for free trade, but the reality is because it's in the US' nature there isn't a great deal of free trade going on. Their foreign relations issue is not free trade, it's about control and influence."

The Prime Minister says Labour's acting like an opposition and not a Government in waiting over its stance on the TPP trade deal.

John Key said if Labour doesn't vote for it, it says more about Labour than it does about the TPP.

"It just means that they are not thinking like an alternative Government, they're thinking like the opposition, and they're obviously concerned that if they do that about the Greens and the impact the Greens might have, It would be the left of their caucus that would be driving that."