Parker David: Tariff (New Zealand-Hong Kong China Closer Economic Partnership Agreement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Parker David: Tariff (New Zealand-Hong Kong China Closer Economic Partnership Agreement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13393] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to take a call in respect of the Committee stage of the Tariff (New Zealand-Hong Kong China Closer Economic Partnership Agreement) Amendment Bill. As prior speakers have said Labour supports this bill. Of course Hong Kong is increasingly integrated into the China Hong Kong having been returned as a colony from the British Government to China in—someone else can help me here when did Hong Kong go back to China? 
Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: 1997. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: It was 1997 so in the last 13 years we have seen the relationship between Hong Kong and China become stronger and given the importance of China to the trading relationship with New Zealand things that improve the gateway that Hong Kong provides into China for our goods and services are also in the interests of the New Zealand economy. The closer economic partnership agreement that we have here is another example of bilateral deals that are in the interests of New Zealand notwithstanding the fact that New Zealand believes in multilateral agreements under the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as perhaps being the more ambitious and desirable outcome of international trade talks. But given that the Doha round of the WTO seems to have stalled or at least is at serious risk of stalling the importance of bilateral agreements heightens as a replacement for multilateral agreements. So although multilateral agreements would be better bilateral agreements have to do if the world cannot come to some agreement under the WTO talks. 
In terms of the benefits to New Zealand it is worthwhile that the $4 million of tariffs currently paid by New Zealanders exporting goods to Hong Kong can be avoided through this agreement but I am advised by my colleague Maryan Street that perhaps the greater potential lies in relation to service industries. Service industries providing services through Hong Kong stand to benefit more from the liberalisation of rules that apply to their conduct when trading in Hong Kong. The benefit of that is probably greater than that that accrues from the reduction in tariffs. 
I know that in terms of some of the more populous provinces of China adjacent to Hong Kong Hong Kong is indeed the point of entry into a lot of trade with China nearby. Increasing integration of Hong Kong and China in their commercial affairs means that if we are to have closer economic relations with China—truly one of the world’s superpowers now—facilitating that through the linkages we have through Hong Kong also seems to be a very good idea. It is already on record that the most significant free-trade agreement that New Zealand has entered into in decades is the free-trade agreement with China which was negotiated by Phil Goff when he was the relevant Minister under the previous Labour Government. The statistics in respect of the outcome of the Chinese free-trade agreement show what the economic potential can be for a country like New Zealand to improve our economy with the free-trade agreement. Trade with China has boomed and the profitability of that trade has increased as a consequence of the reductions in tariffs that New Zealand exporters to China have benefited from as a consequence of the free-trade agreement with China. The Hong Kong agreement will bring similar benefit but will be of a scale that is far far smaller given the relative size of the Hong Kong economy compared with the Chinese economy. 
None the less Hong Kong is not a small destination for goods; it is our 10th-largest export market worth $783 million in the 2009-10 year. It is the world’s second-largest service economy and acts as a hub for the provision of services in the region adjacent to Hong Kong as well as Hong Kong itself. If we look at that part of the world as a tapestry of areas where we have different sorts of trading relationships we will see that there are various countries in the Asian region where we have free-trade agreements. There are other countries where we have more restrictive trade arrangements.