Street Maryan: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Street Maryan: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:12106. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill. I have prepared a substantial speech about the detail of the agreement but I will pick up a couple of comments made by previous speakers on the Tariff (New Zealand-Hong Kong China Closer Economic Partnership Agreement) Amendment Bill. They are apposite to any free-trade agreement. In fact the Green Party member Kennedy Graham made a point of referring to a template for free-trade agreements. He said that the language was the same the structure was the same and the underlying premises were the same and therefore the Green Party had the same criticisms of each one of these bills. In fact there is a Green Party minority report in the select committee report back to the House. 
I will pick up on some good points Kennedy Graham made in respect of those matters. It may be to do with the lateness of the hour—I am not sure—but in departing from what I had prepared to say I commend him for bringing those issues to the House. Similarly I commend the Maori Party member who spoke Rahui Katene for reminding us of other issues that impact on our free-trade agreements. 
Life is complex and we try to pursue our way in the world achieving the best we can for New Zealand’s interests but not at the expense of others and not at the expense of any of our own. There are often issues that conflict and that people consider to be mutually exclusive propositions like free trade and human rights or free trade and indigenous industry. We in the Labour Party have promoted free trade for a long time but not at all costs. The gradual movement over time to include for example labour and environment side clauses as we see in the Malaysian free-trade agreement are important and they will improve over time. 
I acknowledge the concerns that Kennedy Graham raised about the national interest analysis apropos of the New Zealand - Hong Kong China Closer Economic Partnership Agreement and I relate them to the Malaysia - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. I think there is a point to be made about the need for an honest appraisal in the national interest analysis of any negatives to New Zealand. I for one would be keen to see more open processes around our trade negotiations so that there might be some robust and public consideration even more robust and public than we have at the moment. That process surrounds this House. The free-trade agreement should be referred to the select committee because it needs to be ratified in law and the public would then have a chance to speak on it and to contribute to the discussion about it. Yet usually only a very few people are interested and wish to participate. I wonder whether making that process broader would get more input closer analysis greater justification and perhaps even more care about indigenous or New Zealand industries and the impact of free-trade agreements on them. That is all for the future but it is something I think we need to take care of; I acknowledge the points that the Green Party made in that respect. 
It still remains that this is a high-quality free-trade agreement. If one compares it with the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement one sees very clearly that it moves further and faster than that agreement. For example under the Malaysia - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement this year at the point of implementation 95.1 percent of tariffs on New Zealand exports will be eliminated. Under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement that figure is 94.8 which is close but not quite as good. I could track the years of the Malaysian free-trade agreement compare it with the ASEAN free-trade agreement and demonstrate that it goes further faster so that by 2016 99.5 percent of New Zealand exports to Malaysia will be tariff free. All tariffs will be eliminated. By that time only 98 percent of tariffs under the ASEAN free-trade agreement will have been eliminated. The remaining 0.5 percent under the Malaysian free-trade agreement is in fact wine and pork products which have some religious and cultural prohibitions around them. 
What do we export to Malaysia that will be so generously and helpfully affected? Well 54 percent of what we export to Malaysia is dairy products. Another 10 percent is petroleum products which is interesting because we import slightly more than that from Malaysia. In addition to that we export cereals minerals metals wood pulp paper furniture meat fruit vegetables and a few other things besides. How will each of these different sectors be affected? First let us go to the immediate winner in this agreement. As soon as this legislation passes—and it coincides with the passing of the same legislation in Malaysia—the kiwifruit industry will experience a huge gain. Currently there is a 15 percent tariff on kiwifruit imports. Despite that tariff I have to say New Zealand exports of kiwifruit to Malaysia have grown by 123 percent in the last couple of years. But at the moment that this agreement comes into force that 15 percent tariff drops to zero and that means that a lot more earnings are retained in New Zealand. In 2010 other key export products are liberalised in addition to kiwifruit. These are butter cheese milk-powder honey wool apples and some manufactured products. 
Let us look at some of these products. In respect of meat wool dairy fish and forestry we find that the Malaysian free-trade agreement confirms the outcome that is also arrived at in the ASEAN free-trade agreement which is the interesting one of binding in existing duty-free access for New Zealand meat wool dairy fish and forestry product exports. This particular provision means that Malaysia cannot legally change this duty-free level of access for New Zealand exporters although it can change it for others. That simply means that our exporters have a greater degree of certainty around their exports. 
Coming from Nelson where all those primary products are in abundance—whether we are talking about kiwifruit meat dairy products fish or forestry—I know that this free-trade agreement will have a direct and immediate beneficial impact on those New Zealand industries. I commend the bill to the House.