Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): Fḁiåk se'ea Mr Speaker I stand as somebody in a party that also highly values trade and it's a great pleasure to speak on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Legislation Bill as a member of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. As we have heard this afternoon the bill is worth ultimately about $1.5 to $3.2 billion or 0.3 to 0.6 percent of our GDP growth and in a Government that has a wellbeing approach we do recognise of course the GDP as one of the really important indicators amongst many indicators that make up the wellbeing of New Zealanders. This bill really broadens and deepens the trade and investment links of New Zealand. As has been mentioned it's an omnibus bill which gives legislative effect to the RCEP treaty. Like my friend on the opposite side of the House I won't go into the technical elements because really what I'd like to address today is the broadening of those trade links. The treaty covers 15 countries seven of our top trading partners and includes five countries that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has free-trade agreements with including Australia. The Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee enjoyed a really rich discussion with Her Excellency Patricia Forsythe today on matters of common interest around trade and regional security a very valuable discussion. It also links us back again with China our largest trading nation and that relationship that has been so aptly described by our Minister of Foreign Affairs the Hon Nanaia Mahuta as a relationship between a dragon and a taniwha. But also Japan South Korea and ASEAN of course have a free-trade agreement with New Zealand. I think we're all in agreement that ASEAN has become increasingly more robust over the years and is indeed an increasingly important trading bloc.The countries represented in the agreement make up one-third of the population globally—that's 15 countries that take over half of our New Zealand total exports—and it's taken nine years and 31 negotiating rounds to get to the agreement. So I commend the officials for the work that they have done. Look I've had the privilege of working across 13 of those RCEP countries except for Brunei and Laos when I was the regional communication director for the British Council. So I was up in that region about every six weeks for a period of two years. In that role I saw the importance of the strategic regional alliances for a small independent highly developed country such as New Zealand. I think it's fair to say I had a bit of a window into how New Zealand was viewed by both those countries and also by the United Kingdom. The words that come to mind are things like independent". Certainly that was shaped in our nuclear moment under David Lange. But also I recall sitting in a lunchtime business speech in Auckland hearing the former Minister for Foreign Affairs the Hon Murray McCully talk about our independence. So it has been through successive Governments and I do think that should be acknowledged as a response to my friend Todd Muller on the other side of the House. We're also seen as very connected despite our isolation progressive on many issues including climate and human rights and respected for our rules-based approach.I think that this treaty enables us to continue that global brand proposition. So it's about respecting and maintaining relationships with our traditional trade relationships while also enabling us to engage in a multilateral way to diversify our export base and to have more nuanced relationships within the many partnerships that we have as a trading nation. I think it futureproofs us from a trend of nationalism that the Hon Phil Twyford said saw 80 world trade organisations have more than 100 new restrictions or barriers in place recently. So the RCEP promotes economic integration but it does also bring us into a rules-based book—a rule book—and it reduces complexity and therefore the compliance cost for New Zealand exporters. It injects us into supply chains and it ensures that we remain there.As has been mentioned by the Minister our exports remained remarkably resilient in COVID. The virus situation is not going to resolve for a long time and I acknowledge Todd Muller for recognising that. It has been the exports and keeping our borders safe that have worked for us so far and that will continue to be critical for our recovery. So the RCEP is an important part of that. To those who are nervous about trade agreements may I assure you that most of the obligations contained in the bill we've actually already met. There are no investor-State dispute mechanisms and those can be problematic in terms of a chilling effect that they can have on domestic policy. So for those who don't know what investor-State dispute settlements are they're really mechanisms that enable foreign investors to resolve disputes with the Government of a country through independent arbitration and although they are seen as neutral they can have a chilling effect on trade. So this agreement doesn't have that. Nor does it have any commitment to extend the intellectual property provisions and that's increasingly important when we think about technological innovation digital innovation cultural intellectual property which is really important particularly for Māori business and also bio-innovation. It also protects and upholds the Treaty of Waitangi provision although personally—and I'm speaking personally here—I'm keen to learn more from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade about how they're strengthening processes around engagement with Māori on Treaty matters and I understand that is happening especially in relation to biodiversity.Just looking at where this trade agreement sits it fits really nicely into our trade recovery strategy. We had $216 million of the 2020 Budget allocation which was to support exporters and international businesses and that was support from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. We've given more help for exporters facing trade barriers and we're trying to build investment capacity in New Zealand. Securing new trade investment opportunities really complements that recovery strategy.So in summary I think that this agreement aligns with the priorities from the Speech from the Throne. It's leveraging off our COVID-safe environment to position New Zealand as a safe and secure place to trade with—one that hopefully will also be safe to visit openly. It meets our trade policy limbs in terms of improving wellbeing for New Zealanders and it safeguards our tino rangatiratanga. It does preserve the possibility for India to opt in when it can and I know it was expressed with great enthusiasm from the submission from Federated Farmers to see India opt in. I echo the words of Todd Muller that that is something that this side of the House feels will really strengthen the trade agreement. But I also see that this is a way of securing trade as part of a rules-based order. It's so important to have multilateral relationships to honour the old relationships that we've had but also to forge new ones. We are moving into a time when the combined GDP of autocracies outstrip the GDP of democratic countries. That's really interesting because we can only influence values-based trade—or trade for a purpose as it could be called—and we can only mitigate against the potential for the weaponising of trade if we are actually connected globally if we have rules-based trading relationships and if we are in supply chains ourselves so that we know how those supply chains operate. The RCEP treaty helps us to achieve that. It keeps the door open for us to bring India into the picture. It keeps us at a very important table and it also of course brings economic benefit to New Zealanders through the enhanced GDP that will result over time from us being part of this multilateral agreement. So I commend both the bill and also the treaty to the House. Thank you Mr Speaker."