Hayes John: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — In Committee 
Hayes John: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17360] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 I will speak in the context of Part 2 and follow my colleague Dr Mapp and the assertions he was making. I thought it might be interesting to consider Part 2 where we are amending the Customs and Excise Act 1996 in the context of agricultural produce. For example when I was ambassador in Iran one could find kiwifruit but they were of a particular size and shape that was not quite the same as kiwifruit that originated in New Zealand. One could find wool being passed off as New Zealand wool and Chinese meat in the Iranian market being passed off as New Zealand lamb. The point about the certificates of origin is that they guarantee to the importing country the source of the goods—that the goods had originated there. So in following this process through in these amendments to the Customs and Excise Act foreshadowed in Part 2 we are protecting the interests of New Zealand agricultural exporters. 
It is easy to produce a pound of butter and put a wrapper around it asserting that it is made in some other country. I do not particularly want to finger countries but I promise members that it happens. Other documentation is required also as part of this process—for example halal certificates certifying that meat shipments are of animals killed in the appropriate Islamic fashion. We are giving the importing country—in this case China—a level of satisfaction that the products entering their market under the certification of the New Zealand authorities are what they say they are. In the same way there will be a similar process at the other end of this telescope in China where the Chinese system will be working to give us exactly the same guarantees and certificates so that we can have satisfaction in this market that we are getting products from China. 
In this general context of Part 2 at the select committee we got a submission on this bill from the Christian World Service expressing concern. The Christian World Service felt that poor countries always start on the back foot in trade negotiations which were it said carefully controlled by the richest countries to further their own interests. Well whether a country is rich or poor I think every country works to advance its own interests and we are doing that in the context of Part 2 and the rules we are implementing which will enable those guarantees to be given. The Christian World Service felt that the communities it was working with—for example in the Philippines and Mexico which are increasing agricultural production to feed their people—had seen large-scale migration off the land. But that has nothing to do with the issues we have had to consider under Part 2. It seems to me that we are actually helping other developing countries particularly those around the Chinese border—for example Cambodia and Thailand—so that when products get exported to us from China we know that they have come from China and have not slid in under a barrier from another country that might have lower costs of production than those found in China. 
Hon Member 
: Is that possible? 
JOHN HAYES 
: Yes that is absolutely possible and I have seen it. I think the other parts of Part 2 are relevant—for example new section 64B inserted by clause 14 where we are establishing “Bodies authorised to issue New Zealand certificates of origin”. This is fundamentally important because we need to guarantee to the buyers in other countries that proper process has been followed and that New Zealand as a reliable trading partner needs to have these certification systems in place in a way that gives confidence to our overseas buyers. I think we fully support those arrangements. 
I will come back to the point that our Green colleague was discussing in terms of threats to products like garlic which I think he was talking about. What is really important is that as we move forward with our trade and advance arrangements with the Chinese community increasingly we will have to put into our agricultural processes the systems that can identify the suppliers of products.