Goff Phil: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Goff Phil: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:618;Page:14346] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade) 
: 
 Sometimes the people of this country must wonder when they listen to speeches on trade by the Green Party. That party seems to fail completely to understand that New Zealand is a trading country and that for both its survival and its prosperity it needs to have access to markets around the world. If the Green Party had its way somehow right around the world there would be free-trade agreements none of which encompassed New Zealand. There New Zealand would be relying on a world market to sell its very largely commodity-based exports locked out of all of those markets and refusing on principle to trade with our fourth-biggest market China because we did not agree with its politics. Maybe we should refuse to trade with our second-biggest market the United States because we do not agree with everything it says. That is a view of the world that is remarkably simplistic and naive and that sort of attitude really raises questions about the Greens’ readiness to participate in a Government. 
I have to say that the Uruguay round for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade has resulted in the advantaging of this country to the tune of billions of dollars a year yet Rod Donald was against that. We would benefit from more billions of dollars each year if we could get the Doha development agenda through but Rod Donald is against that. What I do not understand about what Rod Donald is saying is that he seems not to have picked up a very basic point which is that in order for Third World developing countries to thrive in the world today they need access to markets in the developed world and they need the developed world to cease spending—as OECD countries do—$361 billion a year in export subsidies. That is nearly a billion dollars a day. 
The only way we can stop that is by getting the Doha development agenda through with the critical clause that Jim Sutton is fighting for right now on behalf of New Zealand and the developing world to ensure that the United States and the European Union step back from the position they have held for many years of subsidising their exports and therefore stopping the Third World from using its comparable advantages to get into their markets. Worse still that position is stopping the Third World from exporting anywhere else because the developed world is subsidising its products in a way that puts the developing world out of business. There is only one way to deal with that situation. It is through the Doha development agenda and that is what Jim Sutton is fighting for right now. I would have expected that member to support him in that instead of making that dreary liturgy of doomsday and negativism. 
I put this to the member: New Zealand’s longest standing free-trade agreement is Closer Economic Relations with Australia. It was 20 years old last year. What has that done for New Zealand? At the time Mr Donald and his colleagues said that Closer Economic Relations would destroy New Zealand that we would be overrun by the larger country Australia that we could not possibly do it and that it would damage us hugely. Has it damaged us hugely? No. In that 20 years New Zealand exports have doubled in real terms with Australia. We now send across the Tasman one-fifth of what we export; before Closer Economic Relations it was about one-tenth. That has been a remarkable success story which has led to New Zealand being able to develop the level of prosperity we have today. Closer Economic Relations is a success story for New Zealand exporters and a success story for the Australians. The two countries together have a combined market of $24 million giving our manufacturers—because Australia is our biggest market for manufacturing—a domestic market that enables them to survive and to compete with the world. And Mr Donald said that that was a bad thing. 
Is Uruguay a bad thing? It makes us billions of dollars per year. Is Closer Economic Relations a bad thing? Our economy survives on it. What is more the free-trade agreements that will be negotiated with Thailand and China hopefully with Singapore and Chile in the Pacific Three Closer Economic Partnership and hopefully also with the whole of the ASEAN block will deliver huge benefits to New Zealand. Although we do not have blockages of trade to this country those countries have huge blockages—huge tariffs and non-tariff barriers—stopping our entry. 
This is win-win for New Zealand. It is time that Rod Donald woke up to that fact and supported the efforts that have been given bipartisan support across the House for years to ensure that New Zealand can go ahead to thrive and prosper in the world instead of being locked out of international markets and having a crumbling economy. That is what the Green policy stands for in this area and it really is not good enough. Mr Donald needs to do some work to understand why it is vital that we continue to fight in the world for access for New Zealand exporters into those markets. 
Vote agreed to.