Street Maryan: ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill — Second Reading 
Street Maryan: ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:655;Page:4480] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to speak to this legislation which enacts something that has been in the making for many years. The ASEAN free-trade agreement enshrined and implemented in this legislation has been a long time coming but given the state of the global recession as we now see it it is timely that this legislation is before us and that the negotiations around the agreement have been concluded. I had the pleasure of accompanying the Minister of Trade when this free-trade agreement was signed in Thailand and it is a great pleasure to be the spokesperson in a portfolio where there is truly a bipartisan approach to trade. I underscore that point because the kind of time frame in which businesses choose to invest in foreign markets is generally much longer than an electoral cycle. The last thing that New Zealand businesses need for a long-term plan some strategic engagement with foreign markets and the application of a great deal of investment needs is for those things to be interrupted by a very short 3-year electoral cycle in New Zealand. It has been a very good thing that over the last 10 or 15 years New Zealand has enjoyed having both Labour and National adopting a bipartisan approach to the trade agenda—in fact working under New Zealand Inc. as its operation effectively for trade policy. This is a significant moment. 
The ASEAN market is hugely significant to New Zealand. We have some agreements already in place with some ASEAN nations including separate agreements with Singapore Brunei and Thailand. But this agreement binds together 12 countries—10 ASEAN nations plus Australia and New Zealand—in a market that has the most extraordinary potential for growth. It is very clear that in the operation of this free-trade agreement from New Zealand’s point of view even a very small percentage increase in trade represents a huge benefit for our producers. This is a market where quite simply the volume of the population and the volume of the emerging middle classes really represent an extraordinary opportunity particularly for New Zealand’s food-producing industries. The quality of our produce and for once the proximity relatively speaking of New Zealand to these markets are two elements that position us very well to take advantage of this free-trade agreement. 
There is another matter that I will touch on in the context of this free-trade agreement. I have talked significantly about the opportunity and the value for New Zealand and New Zealand industries to enjoy access to these markets over quite a short period of time in the scheme of things and eventually at no tariffs. It depends on the country as to just how quickly tariffs will be phased out but generally speaking they are moving quite quickly for us and moving more quickly for us than for others in the ASEAN agreement which is a very good thing. So although we will enjoy this access eventually we have to remember also that there are three developing countries in this ASEAN grouping. I think particularly of Burma Laos and Cambodia. Those three developing countries have a particular status as “least developed nations” in the context of a free-trade agreement such as this one. 
I have for a long time been very committed to the achievement of democracy in Burma. Sometimes critics have asked why I am entering a free-trade agreement with ASEAN nations that includes in this agreement a brutal regime one that is more oppressive than almost any other in the world. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: What was the answer? 
Hon MARYAN STREET 
: The truth of the matter and the answer I say for the benefit of members opposite—if they do not know it already but they probably do— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: No I don’t. I don’t know the answer. 
Hon MARYAN STREET 
: Oh they do know the answer. The reason is that least developed nations which are recognised by the World Trade Organization as having that status have automatic access and no quota barriers to the markets of developed nations. That is something we live with regardless of whether or not Burma is part of the ASEAN alliance and this free-trade agreement. The free-trade agreement although it does not improve anything particularly for Burma does not impede anything in New Zealand’s interests if we wish to protest vigorously against the conditions and the regime in that country. So we are still well within our brief and our responsibility in this region to protest at the regime and its operation in Burma and at the lack of progress towards democracy. 
I make that point because sometimes critics of free-trade agreements think that we have given up the right to criticise partners in those agreements; that is not the case. There are some international obligations which we share with every other developed country in the world and which come under World Trade Organization rules that will require us to continue to deal with Burma in the very very limited way that we do. Meanwhile we will continue to protest about the regime and the continued detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and a number in excess of 2000 political prisoners. 
But for pure trade terms this ASEAN free-trade agreement opens up to New Zealand and gives us a priority access to an area that is growing despite the recession an area of the world that is close to us and to which we can consider ourselves to be a near neighbour. And it has enormous potential; if our businesses in New Zealand with the assistance of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise can maximise the possibilities that this agreement presents then they will do extremely well. There is enormous potential there and that will benefit not only those businesses but the New Zealand economy as a whole. Thank you.