Hutchison Paul: ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill — In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:655;Page:4686] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairman for the opportunity to speak on Part 2 of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill. As my colleague Jacqui Dean so aptly put it Part 2 is about amendments to the Customs and Excise Act 1996 which are absolutely crucial to the smooth running of the new free-trade agreement. Indeed the amendments will enable the chief executive of the New Zealand Customs Service to designate certification bodies that are authorised to issue a New Zealand certificate of origin in respect of goods for export to countries that are party to the agreement. A certificate of origin will identify the goods and certify that they are of New Zealand origin in terms of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. It is also important to point out that before designating a certification body the chief executive must be satisfied that the body meets any prescribed criteria and a designation may be subject to terms and conditions prescribed by regulation or imposed at the discretion of the chief executive. 
It is interesting that there were no amendments to this very well-crafted and well-drawn up bill. I must say I congratulate the Parliamentary Counsel Office on that. It is quite rare that we have a bill that has no amendments to it whatsoever. As the bill’s explanatory notes states regulations may be made that prescribe “criteria to be met by bodies wishing to be designated as certification bodies: forms and fees and the manner in which applications for designation as a certification body must be made: terms and conditions of designations.” 
This morning at the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee we had before us the Hon Maurice Williamson. He pointed out to the select committee that modern technology was hugely important both to the importation and exportation of our goods. We have unfortunately over the last 12 years or so not kept up with the technology that is available worldwide. That technology will free up people by ensuring that the very important aspects of their jobs in ensuring the legality of both exporting and importing is right at the top. By embracing new technology we will be able to free up those agents. It is very important that New Zealand does lead the world there because some of the members of this free-trade agreement do indeed have far less sophisticated infrastructure. Countries like Singapore which Dr Ashraf Choudhary was talking about before are at the pinnacle of this technology and trading with them will be extremely easy. We must keep at that peak performance otherwise we will find that we will lose our edge. 
There is no doubt that New Zealand farmers are now required by European countries to be right at the top of traceability. Indeed those requirements will more and more be imposed by the Asian countries that are involved in this free-trade agreement. I note that Fonterra in its submission said this: “We welcome the objective of the agreement to create customs procedures and practices that are predictable consistent and transparent and facilitate trade.” Surely this is indeed the very core of where this new National Government is going. Fonterra went on to say: “An excellent rules of origin outcome was achieved which gives exporters the flexibility of choosing between “co-equal” rules to qualify for tariff preference. However to ensure smooth implementation … of the agreement … lessons need to be drawn …”.