Dean Jacqui: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Dean Jacqui: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10278] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 In the first reading of the Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill I will touch first on the purpose of the bill which amends the Tariff Act 1988 and implements the New Zealand - Malaysia Free Trade Agreement signed in Kuala Lumpur on 26 October last year. The bill speeds up tariff reduction between our two countries. It will take nearly half the time agreed in the agreement that established the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area. 
The comments that I will make in the first reading of this bill I will make largely in the context of the drought conditions that have been declared in much of the eastern area of New Zealand and particularly in North Otago and Central Otago in my electorate. Anything that the National-led Government can do to enhance favourable trading conditions particularly for New Zealand farmers can only be applauded. This agreement with Malaysia is a very important part of National’s focus on free trade and improving access for our exporters to world markets. In the context of my electorate those exporters are in the agricultural sector. This priority was included in the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament in February so I am very proud to stand and speak in the first reading of this bill. 
I will give a little background. Over the past 4 years New Zealand goods exported to Malaysia grew by more than 50 percent making Malaysia New Zealand’s 10th largest trading partner. To me that is exciting and significant. Malaysia provides New Zealand exporters with a wealth of opportunity. In the field of education—which is also important to us—between 2003 and 2008 the number of fee-paying Malaysian students in New Zealand increased by more than 70 percent. That is a significant increase. It makes Malaysian students New Zealand’s third-largest source of fee-paying university students and the second-largest source of PhD students. It is worth noting that international full fee paying students are worth over $2 billion a year to the New Zealand economy. 
I will speak on some of the detail of this Malaysian free-trade agreement. It eliminates Malaysian tariffs on 99.5 percent of New Zealand’s exports within 7 years of its entry into force. That is quite significant. That rate—99.5 percent of New Zealand’s exports to Malaysia being duty-free within 7 years—is much faster than the agreed rate of 99.4 percent over 12 years under the ASEAN agreement. On full implementation of the Malaysian agreement the duty savings will amount to over $10 million a year for New Zealand exporters. Ninety-five percent of New Zealand’s exports to Malaysia will be duty-free on day one of the agreement coming into force. 
The bill also provides 48-hour customs clearance and self-declaration of origin for our exports. Anything that can be done to smooth the way for exporters and to cut some of the red tape under which they operate must be applauded. 
I will talk about a couple of specific components of this free-trade agreement. Although the provisions with regard to kiwifruit are exciting I will leave those to my colleagues who live in the North Island to talk about because we do not tend to grow kiwifruit commercially down south; we have much more exciting things to grow like meat products wool dairy—excluding liquid milk—fish and particularly forestry. Those meat wool dairy fish and forestry sectors retain their duty-free access. That duty-free access is bound in so Malaysia cannot reapply tariffs on New Zealand’s agricultural exports. In my introductory comments to this brief contribution I referred to the droughts declared today; in that context I think that that component is exciting and should be encouraging. In terms of liquid milk there is significant improvement. In-quota duties will be eliminated and in-quota volumes will increase by up to 5 percent a year. 
The New Zealand - Malaysia Free Trade Agreement is boosting innovation. I am quite sure that those in the exporting agricultural sector will be excited about the improvement in the access of exports to world markets. This is one of National’s six policy drivers for a step-change in New Zealand’s economic performance and it is one that will be welcomed by farmers and by the agricultural sector particularly in the dry areas of the South Island. I commend this bill to the House.