Dunne Peter: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dunne Peter: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 15 May 2008. Volume:647;Page:16031. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) 
: 
 When the sailing ship  
Dunedin 
 left Dunedin in 1882 with the first cargo of frozen meat two things changed for New Zealand permanently. Firstly it was the start of the refrigerated meat trade which has subsequently been a mainstay of our economy for over 120 years and secondly New Zealand joined the world’s international trade system. As a small isolated country at the end of the trade routes we have never even in our strongest areas been in the position of being a price maker. We have always been a price taker. We live by our ability to trade and we grow by our ability to get our products into other markets in order to gain the benefits we can then use to provide the income that generates the revenue we need to fund all of the services that we expect a responsible Government to provide in New Zealand. That has been our history for 120 years no matter which Government has been in power. 
We have gone through some changes though in terms of emphasis. Originally it was very easy. We traded with mother Britain. Then mother Britain deserted us and joined Europe—it eloped if you like—and we have spent the last 30 or 40 years in this country desperately trying to replace the dependence that we had right up to 1973. That is why the network of free-trade agreements we have entered into right from the time of CER in 1982 through to this New Zealand - China free-trade agreement now are so critical to this country’s future. 
There is another factor why the notion of free trade is important. Initially as other countries did we embarked in a far more polarised world on a series of bilateral agreements. What could we do with this country? What advantage could we achieve? Now in a globalised environment where telecommunication and the speed of transport have never been greater we simply cannot survive by having a series of one-on-one bilateral agreements. The world is catching up and the challenge for a small isolated country is greater than it has ever been before. That is why the very concerted move that the last two Governments have made to boost New Zealand’s standing in the world through the conclusion of a range of free-trade agreements—and this is but the latest—is a good and positive step. United Future as a free-trade party supports those initiatives because they are what is good for New Zealand.  
When I look at this bill I see that it follows the same broad format as the agreements that have already been entered into over the last few years. This is by far the biggest and the most important agreement because it is with our fourth largest trading partner and the benefits to New Zealand are substantial. There will be billions of dollars’ worth of gain for our economy over the duration of this agreement. No New Zealand Government whatever its colour can afford to give up that possibility in the interests of the welfare of our people. Yes issues will arise in terms of areas where China is more competitive than we are but the challenge we have always had no matter what the market is to improve our productivity and to boost our competitive edge and that challenge is no different with the conclusion of this agreement. 
So I have little truck with those who say that somehow we have sold out our sovereignty to China. If that were the case and if that were the issue then we sold out our sovereignty the very first time we ever traded with anybody because trade is essentially a compromise. I have something to sell someone else has something he or she wants to buy so what do we agree is a reasonable price? The trade agreement with China is that notion writ large over a whole range of products and those who try to pretend that it is something else simply miss the point. 
I want to make one other point in respect of this agreement. We are entering into an economic relationship with China. That is good and that is positive and it will be beneficial to both economies in relative terms of scale. It also means inevitably that there will be political consultations of a closer nature between our two countries. I make no apology for having taken the view—I have said it in this House and I am repeating it today—that we ought to be using the advantage that the newer political relationship will create to push home with more force than ever before our concerns about China’s blatant disregard for the human rights of its own people. Mr Harawira referred to China as the world’s greatest polluter. That is certainly true. It is also the world’s greatest executioner and murderer of its own people. We ought to be taking the opportunity provided by the fact that we now have a close economic relationship to strengthen our political relationship and to make these points—as successive foreign Ministers have always told this House they make—even more strongly to China. 
I make no apology for not going to Beijing for the signing of the free-trade agreement because I have no truck with what China is doing in Tibet at the moment. I think for Mr Moore to try to draw some sinister allusion from my absence at the signing when probably no one would have noticed I was there is simply extreme in its most bizarre form. I take no notice of him either and I note that the world trading community did not take much notice of him; he served the shortest term of any director-general of the World Trade Organization. 
When the China free-trade agreement is signed we have to be very careful that it does not stop there. There are other countries in Asia that we ought to be looking to. The Prime Minister is in Japan at the moment and apparently if one believes the overnight media some small progress has been made in terms of our economic relationship with that country. That is good. We have burgeoning relationships with Viet Nam. We have a strong relationship with Taiwan. We have good relationships with various other countries around that Asian fringe and we need to be developing our relationships more strongly and constantly with all of them. 
A couple of years ago the Asia New Zealand Foundation hosted an international seminar in this building. One of the distinguished speakers a professor of economics from India made the very valid point that India and New Zealand were to use his phrase the bookends of Asia. The challenge for us is to engage. The challenge for us is to be part of the world that we profess to have an interest in the region that is of concern to us. We cannot do that while we bring down the shutters on any form of international engagement in trade. It does not mean that we compromise our basic principles. We need to state them more loudly more vociferously and more clearly than ever before. But it does mean we engage we trade and we work at an economic relationship that is of benefit to both of us. 
I see this bill very much as a continuation of the trend that successive Governments have followed right from the time the Rowling Government back in 1974-75 opened up discussions with the then regime in Iran about meat and petrol. It is the same fundamental issue. It simply changes its complexion from time to time. But New Zealand always has to be one of the smart nations because we are so small and so isolated. We need to be in a position where we can take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. We are smarter and better than most if we apply ourselves fully and these sorts of agreements provide the opportunity for us to do so. 
There are immense chances for this country arising out of this bill. It does not mean we compromise our values or our principles. But it does mean that we make a stand in favour of New Zealand’s economic progress. Yes there are opportunities for China to invest in New Zealand. There are also significant opportunities for New Zealand to invest in China and significant opportunities for the mutual export of technological advantage for exchanges between peoples and for the knowledge base in both economies to be built up. That has to be good for all of us. 
United Future supports this free-trade agreement. We want to see New Zealand take a much more if you like open-ended political relationship with China as a result and be less cowardly than perhaps we have been to date in terms of not wanting to upset that country. This is a huge economic opportunity and it would be irresponsible for any Government and any Parliament to turn it down.