Woods MeganTRADE (ANTI-DUMPING AND COUNTERVAILING DUTIES) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed from 7 February.Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is my pleasure to take a short call and talk about this Trade (Anti-dumping and Countervailing Duties) Amendment Bill which is incredibly important. Labour will not be supporting this bill. We supported this bill at the first reading to select committee. But as some of my colleagues who sat on the Commerce Committee—some of whom have spoken and some who are yet to speak—will outline more fully I am sure once we got into the detail and saw the fish-hooks this is not a bill that we can support.Goods are considered to be dumped if the export price to New Zealand is less than the price they are sold for on the domestic market of the exporting economy. What this piece of legislation does is it introduces a public interest test into New Zealand's anti-dumping and countervailing duties regime. It says that changes to the law to allow goods into the country without duties can be imposed if it is considered that consumers will benefit. Officials told the select committee when this bill was there that this was going to be an incredibly subjective test. There is no other way to put this test in place other than for it to be a highly subjective one. And what does a subjective test like this do? It introduces a whole raft of uncertainty for businesses. Businesses are left wondering whether or not they are going to have this subjective test applied to them.In Labour we support anything that increases benefits for consumers while protecting our industries and it was for that reason we were able to support this bill to the select committee but as I have outlined it is this public interest test that really is the critical thing for Labour and is what is stopping us from being able to support it. It is those criteria. It is that subjective methodology that is being applied and we are not satisfied that these concerns were addressed in the amendments that were proposed at the select committee stage in terms of the scope and parts of that public interest test.We share the concern of a number of submitters who appeared before that committee who drew attention to the proposed changes and the undermining of our domestic producers here in New Zealand in favour of a shift to Australia. This is not something that in the Labour Party we are prepared to support in a piece of legislation. We are not prepared to support a piece of legislation that is going to undermine our small and medium sized businesses in this country which are so critical for providing employment.What we do not want to do is weaken New Zealand producers by introducing this new complexity into their business which really does not need to be there. By removing robust protection around dumping and subsidies we are concerned that this legislation will hurt New Zealand businesses in cases where foreign producers dump products at below their export prices to benefit from subsidies. And this is not some theoretical scenario. This is something that as legislators we should all be wary of. It is our job to protect New Zealand's small and medium sized businesses not introduce legislation that weakens those protections for no benefit. We do not see that the public interest tests and the benefits to consumer criteria and methodology that is being applied in the case of this legislation are sufficient.That view was shared by the majority of submitters. This is not just something that we on this side of the House think. This is something that many of the submitters who came to the select committee expressed. They were worried and they warned that this was a bill that would tilt the playing field in favour of dumped import products rather than local producers and employers or local jobs. That is not something that we are prepared to support. Why would we spend our time in this House putting in place legislation that empowers foreign companies to dump their products in New Zealand rather than standing up for New Zealand businesses standing up for New Zealand employers and most importantly standing up for New Zealand jobs? That is something that as members of the New Zealand House of Representatives we should always have at the forefront of our mind.Labour is concerned about the uncertainty that this legislation would create in the trades remedy regime. It is not going to benefit. It is not going to help our businesses achieve the growth scenarios that they need to have. This is not a piece of legislation that Labour can support.