Norman Russel William: Tariff (New Zealand-Hong Kong China Closer Economic Partnership Agreement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Norman Russel William: Tariff (New Zealand-Hong Kong China Closer Economic Partnership Agreement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 I rise to speak in the Committee stage of the Tariff (New Zealand-Hong Kong China Closer Economic Partnership Agreement) Amendment Bill which deals with the Hong Kong preferential trade agreement. What is interesting about this deal is that aside from the purely voluntary environmental and labour side agreements which are not binding there has been much talk in this discussion about the tremendous advantage that New Zealand has received as a result of the free-trade agreement between New Zealand and China. It is used as a kind of model in some ways to justify this. It is a very common and convenient rhetoric but it is worth looking at the details of how the trade relationships between China and New Zealand have changed after the New Zealand - China free-trade agreement. 
If we look at the detail and try to use this as an argument for all the different preferential trade deals the Government is signing including the one before us we see that the big increase in New Zealand exports has been in dairy produce and in wood and articles of wood. There is a very simple reason for that. What China really wants from New Zealand are these basic commodities: dairy produce and wood. China wants wood for its booming commodity sector. As Tim Groser described it there is a giant sucking sound from China because China is sucking in completely unprocessed wood from New Zealand. It is a very cheap commodity. It had nothing to do with the New Zealand - China free-trade agreement whatsoever. The reason why we are sending a lot of wood to China is China wants wood not because we have some piece of paper that some people happened to have signed and think is significant. 
The second big increase has been in dairy produce. The reason that there has been a big increase in dairy produce is the San Lu disaster with the contaminated milk which was a catastrophe for many millions of Chinese parents and families. As a result they wanted clean green produce. The place they went to get clean green dairy produce was New Zealand. They perceived New Zealand’s food products to be environmentally sound which in turn means they are safe for their children. 
So the two great increases in exports from New Zealand to China have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the New Zealand - China free-trade agreement. Even though it is used constantly by those who support an ideological position in favour of free trade the truth is that the two big increases in commodity exports to China from New Zealand have nothing whatsoever to do with the free-trade agreement; it is simply used to justify the ideology of it. In understanding our relationship with China we must not take a naive position. I think that a lot of the debate in this House is extremely naive in its attitude towards China. 
The San Lu disaster is a very good example of that. We saw that the head of San Lu Tian Wenhua was both the chairwoman of San Lu and the head of San Lu’s Communist Party of China branch and the reasons for that were intimately connected. The Communist Party of China is the puppet master that runs all of the large corporations in China including San Lu. In the lead-up to the Olympics in Beijing there was an edict from the propaganda department. It said that people could not discuss food safety issues in the lead-up to the Olympics. It was produced by the propaganda department. Each week in China the propaganda department of the Communist Party of China sends out a list of topics that will not be discussed in the media that week and one of the issues that were not allowed to be discussed in the weeks leading up to the Olympics was food safety issues. So Tian Wenhua who was the chairwoman of San Lu— 
John Hayes 
: What’s this got to do with the bill? 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN 
: I can tell Mr Hayes that it has everything to do with the bill. This is about the effectiveness of these free-trade agreements. I am trying to explain to the Committee that this particular free-trade agreement with Hong Kong like the one with China is not very effective. If we look at the increase in dairy exports to China we see it had nothing to do with the free-trade agreement and everything to do with San Lu. We can only understand San Lu if we understand the way in which the Communist Party of China controlled the company. In the lead-up to the Olympics the Communist Party said “Do not discuss food safety issues.” so the chairwoman of San Lu had a choice. She could either obey the Communist Party of China which said “Do not discuss food safety issues in the lead-up to the Olympics”—