Donald Rod: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Donald Rod: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:622;Page:17378] 
6.  
ROD DONALD (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Will she reconsider the commitment she made in Laos to negotiate a free-trade agreement with ASEAN countries including Myanmar in light of comments from New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson that there is a risk such deals will “permanently damage New Zealand’s manufacturing base”; if not why not? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Acting Prime Minister) 
: 
 No because I believe that the deal will contribute to the long-run prosperity of New Zealand. 
Rod Donald 
: Does she then agree with the chief executive of Fisher and Paykel Appliances John Bongard that free-trade benefits had to spread further than to just agricultural exports and what assurances will she give to the New Zealand manufacturing sector that any free-trade agreements with ASEAN or China would prevent the dumping of products or competition from subsidised manufactured goods? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: The fact is that pretty much across the board tariffs on our exported manufactured goods into South-east Asia and China are higher than New Zealand’s tariffs on imported manufactured goods from South-east Asia and China. 
Dail Jones 
: What assurances can the Prime Minister give the low-paid workers of New Zealand that they will not lose their jobs as a result of free-trade agreements with a very low-wage economy like Laos and other low-wage countries remembering the way in which low-paid workers lost their jobs during the term of the 1984-90 Labour Government of which the Prime Minister was a part? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: With unemployment down to 3.8 percent our biggest problem in the labour market at the moment is labour shortage not labour surplus. In any case there is no prospect in New Zealand trying to compete at the bottom end of the wage and labour market with countries such as Laos and others. If we try to do that it will simply lead to lower wages in New Zealand. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: Can the Prime Minister indicate to the House what the time frame is from here for the commencement and potential conclusions of negotiations with the ASEAN States and what particular concerns and interests New Zealand will be taking into those negotiations? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I understand that the negotiations are looking in terms of a timetable over about 2 years or so but then of course some years after that in terms of the phasing in of any agreement—as we have seen say within the United States - Australia free-trade agreement. There is a long phase-in period for certain elements. 
Rod Donald 
: Is it respectful to the thousands of Kiwi workers who will lose their jobs as a result of these trade deals to call them “adjustment challenges” as the Government did in its China trade-deal report and will she be directing her officials to use plain English in future and refer to human beings as human beings and lay-offs as lay-offs? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: There is no evidence to suggest that the job losses involved for some sectors will involve thousands of jobs. The Government’s strategy is about assisting sectors such as textiles clothing and footwear to move to the higher end of the market where New Zealand can compete. We cannot compete at the low to middle end of the market over the long term unless we wish to be a low to middle end wage country. 
Rod Donald 
: Will there be any adjustment challenges amongst her Ministers if it turns out that this new lot of trade deals is as bad as the Singapore one and results in New Zealand’s record $4 billion trade deficit getting even worse or will it be only Kiwi workers who will pay the price for the so-called free-trade agenda of this Government? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I have no doubt that the current trade deficit would be much worse had it not been for the successful conclusion of the Uruguay round in terms of the World Trade Organization and other agreements that New Zealand has entered into. Our present trade deficit in part of course is a long-term structural one added to by the low level of the United States dollar. It is also partly due at the moment to high levels of importation of equipment for business investment purposes. 
Keith Locke 
: Does she stand by her comments to the 1998 Labour Party conference that the then Prime Minister Jenny Shipley “prefers to build links to oppression while democratic voices are silenced in jail”; if so why is she herself building economic links with the oppressive military dictatorship in Burma while democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi is further silenced by having her house arrest extended for another year? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Contrary to what is being said in this context the Prime Minister has already since the conference condemned the further extension of Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention and there is no question that the Prime Minister has also raised the issue of human rights in the Vientiane conference. Were we to live in splendid isolation in a country of 4 million low-paid peasants our voice would be worthless in the world. 
Rod Donald 
: How can it be just or right for New Zealand to negotiate a preferential trade deal with the Burmese military regime given that it is a brutal dictatorship responsible for forced labour child labour trafficking in prostitution and the imprisonment of political prisoners and that Burma is the world’s largest producer of illegal opium or are there no ethical bottom lines in this Government’s trade policy? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Negotiations are with ASEAN as a whole of which Burma is an extraordinarily tiny part in terms of gross domestic product. ASEAN itself is starting to raise human rights issues within its context and close relationships with functioning and longstanding democracies such as Australia and New Zealand will no doubt assist the more progressive forces within ASEAN.