McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (Minister of Trade): Can I thank colleagues for their praise and their words in support of officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the Ministry of Defence. I think our diplomats do extremely well for New Zealand overseas. Indeed over the last year or so as the Minister of Trade when I go to negotiations we have a small team of very focused very experienced people. Most other countries have delegations that are four five sometimes six times as large as the New Zealand delegation but I think that for our relative size we not only hold our own we continue to deliver on behalf of New Zealand. Our diplomats our mandarins are unseen and unheard—at least they were previously but I continue to encourage them to be more outward looking to engage more with New Zealanders and to talk more about what they are doing. It is not something that sits comfortably within the field of diplomacy and foreign affairs but I think that all New Zealanders will be richer for knowing the work that they are doing.I would like to thank the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee for its report. I know from the MFAT officials who attended the hearing that they were pressed very hard. They were challenged in a number of areas. My view having previously sat on that committee is that it is Parliament's and the committee's job to test not only our ministries but certainly our Ministers and so I think the committee's report is extremely useful.I want to just touch on a couple of trade negotiation areas if I may that have come out of the annual review and just give a bit of additional information to the Committee. I would like to start with the PACER-Plus agreement. New Zealand has no stronger relationship with any group of countries than we do with the small and often vulnerable Pacific Island countries. Eight years ago a trade negotiation was started with these countries and it was to make sure that the trade that we had in other agreements would be modern and up to date. Eight years later I am very pleased to inform the Committee that we have just concluded that negotiation with 12 of the 14 Pacific Island countries.But it is not actually a trade agreement; it is a development and trade agreement. The reason for that is that it is very important that we look to work with these Pacific Island countries to find ways to help them grow their capacity to grow their economies to be able to sell to trade more with New Zealand and Australia and indeed the rest of the world. We are working through with some of our partner countries as to when we can release the document—they have different procedures than we do—but it is my intention to release it to this House and to the public before it is signed as we have done with previous agreements. It is a high-quality agreement that I think we should stand behind because it is as much about development as it is around trade.The other thing that I think is very important and at the top of people's minds at the moment is the European Union the UK and Brexit. Officials from foreign affairs and I as Minister have spent a lot of time over the last year or so in Europe talking to those countries about why we need a free-trade agreement (FTA). In the report the question was why we have not got one yet while other countries have. It is an excellent question from the committee. Indeed it is because nobody owes New Zealand a living. We are 4.5 million people a long way from anywhere in the rest of the world and we have to go to find good reasons for others to want to do trade deals with us. There are only six countries in the World Trade Organization that do not have an FTA with the European Union and we are one of those but I am very pleased that we have finished the scoping exercise and with the European Commissioner for Trade I announced just a month or so ago that each side is now going to seek a mandate so that we can formally launch that negotiation.Of course the European Union will be occupied and preoccupied with Brexit and the UK. I am very pleased to say also that in a meeting I had with the UK trade secretary Liam Fox he confirmed for us earlier this year for the first time that New Zealand will be the first cab off the rank along with Australia for their new FTAs once Brexit is finished once they are out. In the meantime we have created a trade policy dialogue with them to continue that work and to deepen that relationship.That is just a demonstration of the work that MFAT has done over many years and why successive New Zealand Governments and Ministers have spent a lot of time in trade overseas. Nobody owes us a living. We have to be over there reminding them of why we are important making the case for better and fairer access for Kiwis to these markets and finding every single advantage that we can. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has certainly done that for us in so far as the EU and the UK are concerned. It has not for PACER-Plus because PACER-Plus is not actually about fairness to us; it is about a fair deal for our friends in the Pacific. Thank you.