Salesa Jenny: Tariff (Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the Republic of Korea) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSalesa Jenny: 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.]JENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East): Thank you for the call to speak on the Tariff (Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the Republic of Korea) Amendment Bill. As the Committee has heard Labour supports this legislation because it will substantially reduce the tariffs faced by New Zealand exporters to South Korea. Korea is our fifth-largest export market so it is an important trading partner for New Zealand. The bill may be short but its effects are wide and it sits upon some analysis—85 pages in fact of national interest analysis.Labour is pro-trade. We recognise that free trade is vital to the growth and success of a small economy such as ours—one that suffers under the so-called tyranny of distance. In a globalising market place we must fight for every advantage we can for our exporters and for our country’s future. Labour acknowledges the opportunities and that there are some risks that free-trade agreements like this can bring. We are very proud as the Labour Party of the free-trade agreements that we previously negotiated—for example the one with China.Korea is a significant trading partner for us and we have been on the back foot as exporters to Korea. However the agreement under this bill will substantially reduce the tariffs currently faced by our exporters to South Korea and it will put New Zealand on a more level playing field when competing with sellers to South Korea from other countries that have been paying substantially lower tariffs than us because their earlier trade agreements have already reduced their tariffs.My electorate of Manukau East in South Auckland is a city at the epicentre of a housing crisis of monumental proportions right now. Thousands of young New Zealanders particularly and low to middle income groups of all ages increasingly are tenants in our own country. Māori and Pacific people are the worst affected but Kiwis of all ethnicities are indeed struggling to get into homes. Families are living in garages and cars because of escalating rents and are descending into a spiral of poverty. Non-resident foreign buyers especially in Auckland are fuelling housing demand which is pushing up prices to levels most New Zealanders cannot afford. It is essential that the housing situation and the dangers of the bubble we are in is acknowledged and that the heat is taken out of the Auckland housing market as effectively and as efficiently as possible.However I have some concerns about the effect that this free-trade agreement with the Republic of Korea may have on the ability of future New Zealand Governments to establish controls on the purchase of New Zealand residential land by overseas buyers and on its ability to bring in a stamp duty on purchases of land by overseas buyers for example. The Government has not done well by New Zealanders over this part of the agreement. The Government is potentially ruling out a way of dealing with the crisis. It has accepted terms that are out of step with free-trade agreements in place between Korea and Australia for example.A side letter should be considered for the free-trade agreement to clarify the effects of certain provisions of the free-trade agreement with Korea. In our minority view Labour noted that significant groups making submissions on this bill expressed very real concerns about the loss of New Zealand sovereignty especially in relation to investment rules. There has been limited engagement with the wider public about the concerns raised in some of the submissions on this bill which is quite disappointing. New Zealand must not trade away its sovereignty when signing up for free-trade agreements and the public needs confidence that these deals are indeed in our country’s best interests. Thank you.