Sutton Jim: General Debate 
Sutton Jim: General Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:22055] 
Hon JIM SUTTON (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 National will say anything to get elected. Nowhere is that more clear than in the area of trade negotiations. On the one hand National is telling business audiences that New Zealand has a bipartisan trade policy. That is because the business community likes Labour’s trade policy. It is energetic and innovative and in 6 years we have completed free-trade or closer economic partnership - type treaties with four other nations: Singapore Chile Brunei and Thailand—the latter a particularly significant development for manufacturers and services exporters as well as for our traditional primary product producers because of high Thai tariff levels. And we have started several more such treaties with China Malaysia and the 10 ASEAN nations as a whole and contributed to the successful launch of the Doha multilateral round. 
In 9 years National started one free-trade agreement negotiation and completed none—not one. But is National really bipartisan now or does it just have a bifurcated tongue? National’s trade spokesperson Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith PhD as his friends call him immediately scorned the China negotiation which was the first between China and a developed country anywhere in the world when this Government first announced it. He scorned it. He clearly subscribes to the black hat / white hat school of international relations: either nations are good—that is they participate when invited to do so in the invasion of countries that are evil; or countries that are not good must be evil so doing business with them should be avoided. 
The Nats continued to withhold their support for a China - New Zealand free-trade agreement negotiation until it became crystal-clear even to them that the overwhelming majority of the New Zealand business community is very enthusiastic in its support of this Labour Government initiative. Then National got into line or purported to do so. What is clear is that although National will say anything to try to get elected it would never have launched a negotiation with China and it could not be relied upon to conclude the negotiation if it were to become the Government. But of course we could rely on National to commit our troops our young military service people to war against the “black hats” in order to get negotiating coin for a trade negotiation. 
The reaction of Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith PhD when the Prime Minister announced that New Zealand would not participate in the invasion of Iraq unless requested to do so by the United Nations was to say: “Well we can kiss an FTA with the United States goodbye then.” That is what he said. National has confirmed that attitude by Dr Brash’s assurance to a visiting United States congressional delegation that if National becomes the Government the nuclear ships policy will be gone “by lunchtime” even. So much for bipartisan policy! I can tell the House that Labour will never commit young New Zealanders to war simply to gain negotiating coin for a trade Minister—never. We will never do that. We respect our young people; we do not go to war for that sort of reason. What is more Dr Brash of course by that one thoughtless promise ensured that the United States will not negotiate with New Zealand until the people of New Zealand have once again returned a Labour Government to the Treasury benches.