Yates Dianne: Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Yates Dianne: Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1616] 
DIANNE YATES (Labour) 
: 
 I thank the Hon Murray McCully for his comments on this bill. I might point out that it is a very small bill comprising only two pages so it will not take the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee a great deal of time to process. 
The general policy statement in the explanatory note states: “The Bill amends the Tariff Act 1988 to enable the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPA) to be brought into force. The TPA has been signed by Brunei Darussalam Chile New Zealand and Singapore. The agreement obliges each party to phase out duties on goods imported from the other parties. As goods imported into New Zealand from Singapore are already exempt under the New Zealand/Singapore Closer Economic Partnership Act 2000 the preferential tariffs provided for by the Bill will apply to goods originating from Brunei Darussalam and Chile.” 
So this bill is actually a small technical bill to allow the treaty to continue and to become part of our law. This measure is not being hurried. The negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement started in 2002 with the New Zealand Government the Prime Minister of Singapore and the President of Chile. The agreement was originally known as the “P3” agreement because it involved three countries: New Zealand Singapore and Chile. It was then extended to include Brunei Darussalam. So the bill will not take a great deal of time. 
Also the bill has gone through the treaty procedure which means that the select committee has already looked at the national interest analysis and reported back on it to the House. During that stage we had public consultation and brought people in to the committee to give us their opinion so we are now really only going through another step in the process. 
The national interest analysis lists about five pages of people who were consulted in the process. Individual businesses were written to and meetings took place with the Council of Trade Unions Local Government New Zealand the Federation of Maori Authorities at least 51 companies the New Zealand universities and non-governmental organisations. Chambers of commerce have held workshops on the whole issue. So I do not think it is quite right to say that the matter is being rushed through. A great deal of consultation has taken place in relation to the bill. 
I want to point out a couple of matters. One is about cultural effect and there was some discussion when we looked at the national interest analysis. We have been assured that the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement contains safeguards to ensure that there are no adverse effects on New Zealand cultural values including Maori interests. One part of the analysis states: “Provided such measures are not used for trade protectionist purposes the Trans-Pacific SEP also gives successive New Zealand governments the right to adopt measures they deem necessary in relation to Maori including in fulfilment of Treaty of Waitangi obligations. Furthermore interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi is not subject to any dispute settlement provisions under the Trans-Pacific SEP.” 
The analysis also has information on the full communication programme. For those people who are interested and listening to the radio if they can access the national interest analysis then that would give them far more detail on the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement the “P4 treaty”. I refer members also to the initial booklet that came out about that and to the statement Jim Sutton made at the time. This is the first trade agreement to involve several Pacific Rim countries and the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement—also known as the “P4”—has a strong strategic dimension and will serve to deepen the economic relationships between New Zealand Brunei Darussalam Chile and Singapore. 
The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement is a high-quality trade agreement. It establishes a free-trade area and liberalises trade between New Zealand Brunei Darussalam Chile and Singapore in both goods and services. The Hon Jim Sutton went on to state: “It achieves a benchmark reached by few bilateral trade agreements in having a commitment by the four countries to eliminate tariffs on all traded goods and at the same time adopts a high-quality approach to trade in services. The shared vision is to stimulate more open trade within the Asia-Pacific region and New Zealand is keen to see the membership of the Trans-Pacific SEP expand as other Asia-Pacific nations look to take part. For New Zealand the economic benefits of the Trans-Pacific SEP will be seen from the day it enters into force.” 
From that day as the Minister of Trade Phil Goff has told us 90 percent of New Zealand’s exports to Chile will enter duty-free as will 92 percent of New Zealand’s exports to Brunei Darussalam. Tariffs between New Zealand and Singapore are already zero as we have said under the existing New Zealand - Singapore closer economic partnership. These tariff reductions will open up new market opportunities and restore level playing fields for our exporters with competitors from those countries like the United States that already have trade agreements with Chile and Singapore. 
The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement is a model of free-trade agreements which further establishes New Zealand’s credentials as a progressive trading partner. With the potential for more countries to join the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement now is the time—and we are keen that this legislation will progress—for Government and business to work together to maximise the benefits and opportunities it offers to enhance trade and economic links. 
I am pleased that we have the support of the other side of the House. I thank those members opposite who were previously involved in some of those negotiations who are now members of the House. In fact they will probably find it very interesting after their having worked on the original negotiations to be able to follow the bill’s process through the House and to see this agreement signed. I certainly know that the Prime Minister is looking forward to the signing of this agreement. Once again along with the Minister I commend this legislation to the House and look forward to its speedy process.