Groser Tim: Tariff (Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the Republic of Korea) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGroser Tim: Tariff (Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the Republic of Korea) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 22 September 2015. Volume:709;Page:6839. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TIM GROSER (Minister of Trade): I want to take a brief call really of a political nature while there are senior Labour Party members in the room to record my personal appreciation of the really constructive approach that they have taken. As they would know from many private conversations I have had with the senior members of the Labour Party and the Labour Opposition and also from a series of public comments I have been assiduous in recognising the huge contribution previous Labour Governments have made to the promotion of New Zealand’s getting a fair deal in the world and I will not change that position.At the same time I recognise—because we have a very very tough Chairman here I will not refer to the elephant in the room—that we are looking through this debate to a much bigger debate that we will have. Out of respect for the Opposition I am taking nothing for granted. I do appreciate that in some corners of the constituencies that you represent there are reservations of quite a serious nature on aspects that are being debated—in my opinion often with wild exaggeration—but it is part of the political process.So I am not making any assumptions here but I do want to record the Government’s appreciation for the very constructive position Labour has taken on this. I will not go over the little argument we are having over whether or not any measure that not this Government but a future Government may take in respect of residential property would or would not be ruled out. I think there is some ambiguity here between our readings of the agreement that is unlikely to be clarified any time soon.That aside I do want to acknowledge that this is not a perfect agreement. I do not imagine New Zealand will ever negotiate a perfect agreement. It is a complete paradox to me that somehow New Zealand has been able to get higher-quality agreements negotiating by itself than it has when it has had the ostensible support of much much more powerful countries. It is simply not explicable by any rational political logic that I have ever understood but it is a fact.When you look at the high-quality agreement the previous Labour Government achieved in China although it is not perfect—there are still quotas on wool and there is a safeguard mechanism that had the negotiators and the Ministers of the day Mr Jim Sutton and Mr Goff been able to see with perfect clarity maybe we would have got a slightly different deal but nevertheless the China deal is an excellent-quality deal. In a very unique set of circumstances the comparable arrangement that our representatives—I am choosing my words with great diplomatic care—were able to negotiate with Taiwan is again an extraordinarily high-quality agreement and yet in both cases we have tiny New Zealand doing it by itself up front ahead of the pack.It is a very interesting political thing to reflect on: why we have got what is still a good agreement—there is no doubt in my mind that this is a good agreement—but it is not of the same pristine quality that the China and the Taiwan deals were. The reason is that we were following in the political wake of very large countries that for a set of reasons it is probably not sensible to speculate on in public seem to have a somewhat different and less rigorous approach to these negotiations. So there we are.I think this agreement will hold us in very good stead but I do want to emphasise one aspect of agreements of which this is one. When finallywe got this over the line after 5 years of literally tortured negotiations at every level—prime ministerial level with the Presidents two or three of them; ministerial; and our senior officials who are absolutely world-class negotiators—I was always conscious that the happiest people in New Zealand were the kiwifruit producers. I think it deserves—as I reach the 6 o’clock deadline—just a second of reflection on why because it does have a broader application Mr Chairman and I will be very careful to watch your admonitions.It is not only a question of new opportunities which this country will need for the generations that will succeed us but it is also about protecting existing trades. There is no doubt that had we not finally managed to break this impasse and get this agreement through on kiwifruit—I forget exactly how important a market Korea is but it is a very important market for New Zealand kiwifruit—those trades would have been thrown out of that market. They were under massive pressure. So the one thing I would ask members of the Committee to recall when they sit down and look at this agreement or future agreements is this: you have to consider the costs of staying outside. Thank you.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.