Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the second reading of the Trade (Anti-dumping and Countervailing Duties) Amendment Bill. Before I actually get on with the bill I would like to congratulate the new Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Hon Jacqui Dean and I would like to wish her well in her new job and elevation. I am sure that she will do a sterling job. If her past experience in chairing committees which I have actually seen physically is anything to go by she will do a fantastic job.I would also like to wish all members right across the House a blessed Year of the Fire Rooster. In the ethnic lunar calendar it is the Year of the Fire Rooster. As you can imagine fire is burning and big. A rooster wakes up really early and it is hard at work early in the morning so I think it is an indication of what this year is actually going to be—a year of hard work and lots of productivity.To members across the House whom I heard speaking Te Reo as I was coming to the House—I would like to wish kia ora to my brother over there and wish everybody a happy Waitangi Day for yesterday. It was a wonderful thing to be at Ōrākei Marae to experience Waitangi Day.The purpose of this bill is to allow New Zealand to undertake its duties in accordance with the World Trade Organization and apply anti-dumping and countervailing duties responsibilities. The bill will introduce a test to balance consumer interests with the needs of manufacturers and ensure that when consumers are benefiting from lower prices more choices and availability when apparently dumping occurs their benefit outweighs the effect on the impact on our industries. It is important for New Zealand that our market is competitive but that it is also fair to our trading partners. Sometimes that is a fine balancing act.Talking about a fine balancing act as the chair of the Commerce Committee which is in fact a split committee I would like to thank the members of the committee and the secretariat for the important work that they undertook on this bill. Although the votes were tied and we were unable to agree on whether the bill would be passed the committee undertook its work diligently and I would like to thank the members for their cooperation.Currently in New Zealand our trade remedies regime is insufficient for when goods are dumped on to the New Zealand market. The proposal placed before the committee is to allow the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to initiate an investigation when a domestic industry suffers material injury because of dumping or subsidisation. The key points surrounding the investigation would be the public interest test that members opposite and the Minister had in fact said—that is to say whether the dumping of the goods would be of value to New Zealand consumers despite the unfair competitive advantage it may proffer to the dumping agent. The bill would allow the Minister responsible to impose duties if it is in the public interest to do so. It would also allow the Minister to suspend or terminate existing duties and/or defer where appropriate cases may exist. An example would be when a natural disaster perhaps occurs like in the case of Kaikōura or Christchurch.The bill also seeks to clarify a number of existing provisions in the law. I commend my fellow National members of the Commerce Committee for supporting the bill's objective to achieve a net public interest through the introduction of the public interest test. I know that members opposite and Government members disagreed on this and we did actually spend quite a bit of time debating this. But New Zealand needs to maintain an effective trade remedies regime so our domestic industries have confidence that the Government can in fact protect them against unfairly priced dumped goods. I am pleased to support this bill because it actually has that remedy and the protection for our producers. I commend the bill to the House.