Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): I rise as the member of Parliament for Southland to speak in support of the second reading of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Legislation Bill on behalf of the National Party. It's great to be able to speak in support of a bill giving effect to a free-trade agreement signed on 15 November last year by 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific which between them are home to about a third of the world's population—2 to 3 billion people; a third of the world's GDP—and the destination of over half of New Zealand's exports. This is the culmination of a body of work which started when the National Party was in Government. These negotiations were led by the Hon Tim Groser back in 2012 and has been completed under the guidance of the present Minister for Trade and Export Growth the Hon Damien O'Connor—a great example of a bipartisan approach to trade and the recognition of how valuable trade is to New Zealand.Agreements such as this are also an important example of multilateralism. These are the framework of institutions the norms and rules that make up the international order that countries around the world and particularly small trading nations such as New Zealand rely upon in order to be able to sell our goods to the world. It is important to remember that as a trading nation we must sell our goods in order to be able to buy goods that other countries make that we do not have the resources or the capability to make ourselves such as iPhones vehicles wind farm turbines and much much more. We are however in an era the world has not seen for a long time when nationalism protectionism and great power competition is on the rise and it is important that we do our part to promote and support multilateralism in this current geopolitical matrix. This is crucial to New Zealand's future as a country that trades with the world.Trade has many benefits. Of course it is crucial for our economy but it also delivers other very important things as trade is not only about the exchange of goods and services but it facilitates the exchange of ideas the growth of personal relationships and an opportunity to understand other viewpoints even if we don't agree with them.In the current geopolitical environment with borders largely closed to the world for over a year and a half and uncertainty about how long the borders will remain largely closed trade relationships offer a very valuable role in developing and maintaining the person-to-person organisation-to-organisation and Government-to-Government relationships that are key for maintaining the links and relationships that underpin the understanding that helps maintain not only trade but also peace. People and nations that trade with one another have an inherent motivation to maintain cordial relationships even if they do not always see eye to eye on a number of issues.If I look to my electorate of Southland the land of milk and honey I see an economic powerhouse that contributes much to New Zealand and much to the world exporting milk—Ian McKelvie: It appears to be the land of beef and sheep.JOSEPH MOONEY: —meat apples wine cherries peaches apricots wool as well as an increasing volume of services and much much more. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Ha ha! JOSEPH MOONEY: Madam Speaker I know that there's a significant crossover in terms of the value of the things that are exported from this region that Madam Speaker will no doubt have much familiarity with. The RCEP has benefits for New Zealand. It strengthens our connections with Asia-Pacific; it facilitates trade reducing red tape for exporters; it opens the doors for our goods and services exporters; it improves transparency and certainty around investment in RCEP countries; and it modernises and deepens our trade relationships. The 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations are Brunei Cambodia Indonesia Laos Malaysia Myanmar the Philippines Singapore Thailand and Vietnam. They have formed an agreement with the other nations being New Zealand Australia China Japan and South Korea. These are all very exciting growing economies and this agreement cements our place in the trading framework of the Asia-Pacific. New Zealand exported over $36 billion of goods and nearly $12 billion of services to RCEP countries in the year ending 2019. If I look at just one of the countries in the RECP Indonesia it has a population of 284 million people—the world's fourth – most populous country. The Indonesian Archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the 7th century. It is now the only G20 member State in Southeast Asia and it's the largest economy in that region. It's Australia's largest export market for cattle and beef offal and its fifth-largest market for boxed beef. It possesses great growth potential thanks to its large population with a rapidly expanding digitally connected middle class steady economic growth and continuing urbanisation. This is a great example of many of these countries in South-east Asia which is an economic powerhouse that it's a pleasure to be a part of.