Shearer David: Trade (Safeguard Measures) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Trade (Safeguard Measures) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 08 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:16951. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert):I was pausing because I hoped the Minister in the chair the Minister of Commerce might be able to stand and give us the explanation that my colleague Phil Goff was actually asking for. I think those were legitimate questions and if you ask a legitimate question in the House particularly in the Committee stage I think the Minister who has taken the chair late has a responsibility to answer them. The Trade (Safeguard Measures) Bill is a bill that we are supporting for the reasons that Phil Goff just outlined. We are a trading nation. We do rely on overseas trade. We have freed up our trade significantly in the last few years. We have very little in the way of tariffs restricting the flow of goods coming into New Zealand at the moment. I think the last are around about the 5 percent mark. We have a number of free-trade agreements that have been developed principally under a Labour Government but also of course continued on by this Government as well with for example Taiwan.As Phil Goff just mentioned we have just completed a visit to China with the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee which I think was interesting on a number of levels in terms of the trade relationship we have with China. It did highlight a couple of points that I think I would like to mention in relation to the Trade (Safeguards Measures) Bill however and those are our huge dependence and growing dependence on China—that sort of dependence likens back to the 1960s and our dependence on the UK—and also the huge dependence in the area of primary products particularly milk powder. Forty-four percent of our milk powder now goes to China Taiwan or Hong Kong. We are very very dependent on that. That places us in a situation where there is considerable risk should that market not perform.It also dominates vis-à-vis other industries and it is these other industries that I think the trade safeguards legislation is really aimed at because let us face it it is unlikely that for example China or another country is going to flood our country with milk powder. It could however be able to flood some of our manufacturing markets with some of the goods that could easily swamp and put out of business some of our manufacturing industries. That is unlikely to happen but it could happen and this legislation is designed to help prevent that from going on. It does put in place some temporary restrictions around the ability for that to happen for overseas countries to flood our market with goods that are well undervalued in order to be able to suppress and eliminate some of own markets.The bill gives quite an amount of authority to not only the Minister but also the chief executive officer of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to be able to mobilise measures from what used to be 35 days’ protection now up to 75 days and in exceptional circumstances up to 85 days to protect that. It gives that Minister the ability to do that. Normally that could be in the form of a duty but there is a degree of flexibility around that as well. As we have heard it replaces what is in place at the moment which has been there since 1987. In 1987 we had the Temporary Safeguard Authorities Act. That was regulating this part of our export market or our local market. That will now be replaced and instead of the safeguard authorities being in place we will have the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment being able to do that job for us just as effectively.I want to come back to the two key questions that Phil Goff asked of the Minister and I call on the Minister before Jami-Lee Ross jumps up to take yet another closure motion to actually get around to answering this. The first question is why it is that this bill which first came up in 2008 has taken more than 6 years to get to where it is now in the Committee stage. We do not even know whether in fact this bill will get through before there is a change in Government.I can tell you one thing. When there is a change in Government we will be able to push this through and get it done—something we started in 2008 and we can finish off in 2014. This bill was first introduced by Lianne Dalziel. It was then taken up by Simon Power. Simon Power used the same speech notes as Lianne Dalziel was speaking from when she spoke on it. That was—how many years ago now—3 years. It then went to John Banks. The baton was passed to him. Well John Banks did not last for that long for all the reasons we know and all the reasons he may not last very much longer. As we speak the clock is ticking around John Banks. And now it has been passed through to Craig Foss. I think it is a legitimate question to ask why it has taken so long and why it has been put on the back-burner of back-burners in order to be able to be considered today.There is a second question that Phil Goff raised and that I would like the Minister to answer. Yes this bill is important in terms of protecting our local industries in world terms and certainly New Zealand terms where we have opened our borders substantively from dumping but I would like to know what examples the Minister can give of which industries need temporary protection and what countries he envisages us looking at in terms of being the greatest source of threat to New Zealand. I think actually we need to have a little reality here. At the moment people are probably watching this and saying “Well yeah I can kind of get my head around the idea that we need to protect our local industries.” but they want to know from whom and what sorts of industries do need protection. Why do we need this legislation as it is drawn up right now?There are the two questions. One is why it has taken 6 years for this legislation that we are supporting. We do not have a problem with the legislation as such but we do have a problem with the delays in this legislation coming through. Why has it taken so long since Lianne Dalziel in 2008? Lianne has gone now. Simon Power whom she passed it to has gone. John Banks well he is “gone-burger” as well. It is “gone-burger” all the way down the line and it will be “gone-burger” for this Government. Craig Foss does not have very much time before he can get this legislation through this Parliament before he is “gone-burger” as well. There is a long line of skittles being knocked over by this trade bill that has been lingering on our books for the last 6 years. The second question I ask is why do we need it? What industries need protection? And lastly from whom? Thank you very much.