Locke Keith: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — In Committee 
Locke Keith: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17368] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 There was an article in the  
Independent 
 just last week headed “Hidden hooks emerge in China FTA” and I think the article does relate to Part 5. It is about standards—in this case standards for electrical goods—and one chap by the name of Andrew Little who is the national secretary of the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union is quoted here. I note that he is a member of the Labour Party and in some minds is pencilled in to be a future leader of that party. But he is rather concerned about some of these fish-hooks. 
Andrew Little is worried and he says his sector is worried about the ability of employers and unions to verify and authenticate the qualifications of temporary Chinese workers. Instead of the Chinese industries being worried about New Zealand exports of electrical goods to China being in conformity with their standards which this part is all about they could say they will take over a New Zealand company run it themselves and import all the Chinese standards here. But as Mr Little says the quality of the work might not be up to our standards if we cannot check properly the skills of the temporary workers who are to be allowed in under the free-trade agreement. There is a quota being allowed in and who knows really? 
The standard of the skills can change in our regulations but there is a clause in the treaty saying that if the skill standard in the New Zealand skilled migrant programme is raised for say electrical manufacturing workers the old standard can continue to apply for up to 3 years to the quota of Chinese skilled workers who are to be allowed in. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: Mr Locke you are actually straying away from the part. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: No it is to do with keeping in conformity with the standards for the export of electronic goods to China— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: Yes but not to do with the skills. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: In the case of Vector Wellington Electricity Network the lines section of the electrical system has already been taken over by a Chinese firm and that could well be extended into the manufacturing industry. That is a problem. Fletcher Construction chief executive Mark Binns in this article is also worried about the competition from cheap Chinese labour. 
Throughout business there are concerns. The latest  
Exporter 
 magazine has just come out. It has a snap poll and the first comment is “So what? There will be more in it for them than us.”—“them” being the Chinese. Another comment says “I have exported to China and am now working closely with the distributor but the Chinese authorities make it very hard with all the documents and charges for getting products approved.” Another says “I might be old-fashioned”—this is an exporter—“but I want some of our country left for our children and grandchildren. If they are going to eventually earn 50c an hour then I guess I could also go to China and make my fortune now and stuff the rest! But no.” So that is the sort of problem we are up against when we just open the doors. 
This part relating to the electrical standards is well meant but in the context of the total agreement it might actually lead to a further undermining of the standards for our workers and for our industries and not lead to any particular gain for the New Zealand people.