Goff Phil: Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Goff Phil: Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1613] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Trade) 
: 
 I move  
That the Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 I intend to move that the bill will be considered by the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee with an instruction to the committee to present its report to the House on or before 13 March 2006. I also intend to move that the committee have the authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions during any evening on a day in which there has been a sitting of the House on Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House and outside the Wellington region on a day the House is sitting despite Standing Orders 192 194(a) and 195(1)(b) and (c). 
The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement is a four-way agreement to liberalise trade between Brunei Chile New Zealand and Singapore. In fact it is the first trade agreement that spans four countries across Asia and the Pacific and it offers strategic and economic opportunities for New Zealand. Together the four countries which are all member economies of the APEC organisation have a combined GDP of some NZ$400 billion and trade flows amongst the four countries are worth over NZ$2.5 billion per year. The agreement not only reinforces the desire of New Zealand and Chile to deliver trade and economic relations with Asia but also serves as a building block to wider trade liberalisation within the APEC region as a whole. 
The bill amends New Zealand’s domestic legislation in order to bring it in line with the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement. This bill in fact allows the agreement to come into force. That entails an amendment to the Tariff Act 1988 to enable the preferential tariffs conferred by the agreement to be applied to the parties to the agreement. The tariffs conferred by the agreement are included in the preferential tariff column of the New Zealand tariff. The actual rates of duty as spelled out in the agreement will be added to the tariff by a subsequent Order in Council. 
The tariff reductions under the agreement will make New Zealand’s exports more competitive and will bring small but useful immediate benefits to our exporters. On entry into force of the agreement tariffs on 89 percent of New Zealand’s current exports to Chile will be immediately eliminated. All remaining tariffs will be phased out by 2017. That will bring savings to New Zealand exporters of around $2.2 million in import duties—the amount incurred in the year ended June 2004. In that way the agreement will immediately deliver benefits to New Zealand exporters including exporters of products such as coal and a wide range of agricultural technology products where New Zealand’s exports are currently growing such as seeds animal genetic material and veterinary vaccines. New Zealand exported only a small quantity of goods worth $3.55 million to Brunei Darussalam in 2004 incurring duties estimated at $52000. Brunei will bind at zero tariffs covering 92 percent of New Zealand’s exports to Brunei. It will eliminate all remaining tariffs by 2015. Tariffs between New Zealand and Singapore are already zero under the existing New Zealand - Singapore closer economic partnership agreement. 
This agreement however is about much more than just tariffs. It has a clear strategic focus beyond the direct tariff benefits that will accrue to the parties. The agreement will provide more opportunities and greater certainty and transparency for New Zealand businesses that wish to operate in Chile Singapore and eventually Brunei Darussalam across a whole new range of services and sectors. New Zealand companies will be able to bid for Government procurement on the same footing as domestic suppliers. The partnership provides a framework for resolving issues concerning technical barriers to trade and concerning sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Some barriers identified by New Zealand exporters have been included in the immediate work programme of the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade which has been set up. 
The agreement also establishes a framework for closer economic scientific technological educational cultural and primary industry cooperation. The objective is to build on existing cooperative relationships with a focus on innovation research and development creating new opportunities for all parties. Cooperation programmes to support sustainable development will also be established under the Environment Cooperation Agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding on Labour Cooperation which were concluded as part of the overall package of the agreement. 
This is New Zealand’s first trade agreement with a Latin American country. It will put New Zealand’s relationship with Chile—one of our closest Latin American partners—on a new level. As relatively small agricultural traders with comparable productive structures the agreement provides the basis to foster a closer sense of partnership between Chile and New Zealand opening the way to working collaboratively in third markets. Chile has established itself as a business platform for South America in a similar way to the way in which Singapore acts as a hub in South-east Asia. The partnership will raise New Zealand’s profile in Latin America and will make it easier for businesses to use Chile as a launch pad. Since the signing of the agreement there has already been increased interest among businesses and Crown research institutes in the opportunities that Chile presents. The membership of Singapore and Brunei as ASEAN countries is also an important part of the strategic rationale of the agreement and adds significantly to the combined GDP of the member countries. 
The Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee has considered this agreement under the international treaty examination process. Its report to the House notes that the agreement serves New Zealand’s objective of broadening relations with Latin America and Asia as well as promoting New Zealand’s wider trade policy interests in APEC and multilaterally. 
To conclude the agreement represents a significant economic and strategic opportunity for New Zealand. It enjoys strong support from the business community and others including educational institutions with an interest in strengthening relations between New Zealand and the Latin American and Asian regions. The Government would wish to see the bill enacted by 23 March in order to allow adoption by Order in Council of relevant regulations within the time frame in which the parties hope to ratify the agreement. 
I commend this bill to the House.