6. Question No. 6—Trade and Export GrowthINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri) to the Minister for Trade and Export GrowthQuestion No. 6—Trade and Export Growth6. INGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri) to the Minister for Trade and Export Growth: What recent announcements has he made following the WTO meeting in Geneva?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister for Trade and Export Growth): Thank you. After over 20 years of advocacy from various New Zealand Ministers and officials and five days of tough negotiations I was pleased to be able to announce a new World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on fisheries subsidies. New Zealand has been at the forefront of calling for a binding WTO agreement to discipline harmful fisheries subsidies for over 20 years. I'm proud to be part of a Government that is continuing to advocate for sustainable fisheries practices globally. This agreement is significant. It includes prohibitions on the granting of subsidies for illegal unreported and unregulated fishing; prohibition on subsidies for fishing of over-fished stocks; prohibition on subsidies for fishing in the unregulated high seas. The agreements will have real impacts for the protection of fish stocks and will also benefit New Zealand's unsubsidised fishing industry. I'd like to thank all New Zealand and World Trade Organization officials who made this progress possible—in particular Vangelis Vitalis and his superb team; my fellow chair ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia; as well as all those who have worked hard on this area for over 20 years.Ingrid Leary: What other progress was made at the conference?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: I was also pleased to announce significant progress on a range of topics including a package of response to future emergencies including pandemics which build on the lessons of our respective experiences in responding to COVID-19. This includes a partial Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver on COVID-19 vaccines which is designed to facilitate the production and distribution of vaccines in developing countries. This was a priority for New Zealand and should see us make further progress on ensuring vaccination rates are lifted around the world. I was also pleased to announce that New Zealand contributed to a positive outcome in renewing the e-commerce moratorium until the next ministerial conference. This continues a longstanding practice of not applying tariffs or duties to electronic transmissions and is a key enabler of predictable global digital trade particularly in times of the pandemic.Ingrid Leary: Were all of New Zealand's goals for the conference achieved?Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: As I've said there were significant and positive outcomes. However—[Interruption]—negotiators were unable to find agreement on all disciplines.SPEAKER: Order! Some of us are interested.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: Thank you Mr Speaker. We were disappointed with the failure to make significant progress on agricultural subsidies reform but WTO members have agreed to continue negotiations on these important issues ahead of the next WTO ministerial meeting which is expected to be held next year where New Zealand will continue to push for the removal of harmful agricultural subsidies. The negotiations took place at a time when the world is emerging from a global pandemic as well as dealing with rising geopolitical tensions and all 164 countries were pleased that outcomes were achieved and this does provide a much-needed boost for multilateralism.