Donald Rod: Tariff (New Zealand - Thailand Closer Economic Partnership) Bill — First Reading 
Donald Rod: Tariff (New Zealand - Thailand Closer Economic Partnership) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:625;Page:20611] 
ROD DONALD (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 It will not surprise anyone in the House that the Greens will be voting against this bill. That is because we believe it is bad for New Zealand manufacturers bad for their staff and bad for Thai workers as well. What should surprise the House is that the two Progressive Party members will vote for legislation that undermines everything that they used to stand for. 
Even the once-great Labour Party supported the Pause for a Cause campaign to freeze tariffs on imports but that was when it was in Opposition back in 1998. Now that it is in Government with the power to protect New Zealand jobs and businesses the best it can do is to put some window dressing in this tariff reduction bill. The explanatory note states: “The regime establishes the basic right for New Zealand industry when it considers that it is suffering serious injury as a result of a surge in competing imports from Thailand to request the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Commerce to initiate a safeguard investigation and enables the Minister of Commerce if warranted to apply a transitional safeguard measure against such imports.” I guess that is better than nothing but it only confirms that jobs will disappear—will be sacrificed—as a result of this preferential trade deal. 
Indeed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s national interest analysis admits as much. It states: “Any trade agreement involving reciprocal tariff removal can create adjustment effects for import-competing sectors deriving from increased exposure to foreign suppliers …”. It goes on to acknowledge: “The clothing footwear and carpet sector where the highest tariffs of 17-19 percent prevail has traditionally been the most sensitive to tariff reductions. Concerns in relation to imports from Thailand were also raised in respect of whiteware plasterboard steel and certain textiles.” That is bureaucratic doublespeak for good Kiwi businesses going to the wall and good Kiwi workers ending up on the scrap heap as a result of this trade deal. 
Of course trade theory tells us that all of the jobs that will disappear were unproductive and inefficient. One should tell that to the skilled machinists in clothing factories in Levin who are working their hearts out. Trade theory also says they will get a job in one of the export-focused sectors that will expand as a result of this deal. Does that mean those skilled machinists should look for a job on a dairy farm or in a dairy factory? That is the net effect of this agreement. It will slaughter manufacturing that has depended on the protection of tariffs and it may lead to an increase in jobs in the dairy sector. But I say “may” because the national interest analysis states: “Overall effects on employment are more likely to be net positive.” Does that not fill one with optimism and make one feel excited? The Government is not even prepared to take a stand and claim that this agreement will create thousands of jobs in New Zealand. 
The Government is hedging its bets in the same way that it is hedging its bets on the impact this deal will have on our trade situation with Thailand. At least with the Singapore deal the two Ministers stood up and claimed that we would have a big increase in exports and therefore a trade surplus with Singapore—never mind that they were wrong and we have our biggest ever trade deficit with Singapore and what is more our exports to Singapore have decreased. With this deal there is not even a shred of justification for the Minister to say that there will be an increase in exports let alone a reduction in our trade deficit. That should not surprise anyone because the trade deficit with Thailand for the year to March which has just been published is $355 million. That is an increase of $103 million over the previous year to March. In other words trade is going the wrong way as this Government removes tariffs and opens up our borders and this legislation will make that even worse. Will that help workers in Thailand? No it will not. 
The Green Party would be open to trade rules that actually do help people in the Third World. After all I worked for Trade Aid for 6 years before I came here. I was an importer helping people in developing countries. But we know for a fact that this trade deal will not help those workers because we had one of the clothing workers come to visit us from Thailand last year. She in turn went to see Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials and asked them whether her wages would go up if this trade deal proceeds. The officials said: “No it does not work like that. More of you will get jobs but your wages will not go up.” What will happen is that more workers in Thailand will get 77c an hour to make jackets that sell in New Zealand for $160. Who makes the money? Nike with its brand on them and Rebel Sport that retails them but not Sripai Nonsee and all the people she works with in a sweatshop in Bangkok because they will continue to be exploited. 
Will New Zealand consumers be any better off? They will not be according to our Prime Minister. When I asked a question about whether cutting the 19 percent tariff on rain-jackets would make them cheaper in New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said that the market does not work like that and that it would be a matter for market forces. 
What is the outcome of this deal? New Zealand clothing workers will lose their jobs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade official admitted that when she said there would be more clothing sector jobs in Thailand which can only mean fewer in New Zealand. The Thai workers will not be any better off. Even more of them will be paid less than the cost of living in Thailand. New Zealand consumers will not be better off because the products will not be any cheaper. 
So what is the point of all this? As John Walley from the Canterbury Manufacturers Association said in the Christchurch  
Press 
 only last week: “Sooner or later policy makers must see the New Zealand manufacturing capability as a necessary and strategic asset even though it is made up of many disparate small companies worthy of protection not something that drops off the radar screen when we have a few more containers full of milk powder to sell.” 
However the real issue is not just about whether New Zealand will be better or worse off in trade terms; it is what will happen to workers in Thailand. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they will be worse off. There is no benefit to them from this deal and there is every probability that Thailand will continue with its current appalling labour practices working conditions and human rights abuses because the Thai Government refuses to ratify core ILO conventions. That means that workers do not have the right to organise and conduct collective bargaining which is something that we take for granted. 
Thai women workers are denied the protection of the convention on discrimination so they can be paid less than Thai men. Children in Thailand are denied the protection of the convention on the minimum wage. There is something like half a million 13 to 14-year-olds known to be working in Thailand while an additional 1.5 million children aged 6 to 14 are not registered in schools. We know that Thailand does little to enforce the convention on forced labour despite ratifying it so de facto forced labour remains. If we add to that an obscene minimum adult wage of only $6.20 a day or $31 a week we have an extremely unfair trade deal which the New Zealand Labour Government wants to sign up to. 
This Government should be trying to level the playing field by protecting New Zealand businesses and workers from unfair trade but instead it wants to give a preferential trade deal to a country run by a bully. There is no doubt that Dr Thaksin the Prime Minister of Thailand is a bully and he wants to control not only his own economy but the economies of other countries. We say that this trade deal is bad for New Zealand. This bill is bad for our manufacturers and workers and we oppose it.