Lee Melissa: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is subject to correctionLee Melissa: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 10 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8842. Text is subject to correction.]10.MELISSA LEE (National) to the Minister for Small Business: How will New Zealand small businesses benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement?Hon CRAIG FOSS (Minister for Small Business): New Zealand’s small businesses will benefit from the opportunities of having an open market to 36 percent of the global economy and over 800 million potential customers. Our small businesses will have the opportunity to increase their margins and cash flows as tariffs are reduced. Improved cash flow will mean stronger more confident businesses creating more jobs and higher incomes for Kiwis. Across the agreement the Trans-Pacific Partnership will reduce the kinds of barriers that disproportionately affect smaller businesses. In addition small businesses will also benefit from the provisions outlined in chapter 24 of the agreement. The Trans-Pacific Partnership will make it easier for businesses to gain access to the regulations and requirements in the Trans-Pacific Partnership markets and will mean less time waiting for goods to clear customs lower compliance costs and more predictability around other countries’ processes. This is consistent with article 176 of the China free-trade agreement agreed to by the previous Labour Government.Melissa Lee: Why is it important to create more opportunities for small and medium sized businesses to export?Dr David Clark: Because their numbers have dropped under this Government.Hon CRAIG FOSS: Oh listen carefully. More of our small and medium sized businesses are engaging in export sales. That is why it is important that we continue to create the export opportunities for those businesses. The most recent Statistics New Zealand Business Operations Survey shows that the number of small businesses engaged in export sales has increased from 14 percent to 21 percent since 2007 and for medium businesses engaged in export sales it rose from 21 percent to 28 percent since 2007. In areas such as Southland Tasman Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay 40 percent of jobs in those regions are in the export sector. Free-trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership will ensure opportunities for regional New Zealand in particular. I agree with Helen Clark who said it would be unthinkable for New Zealand as a small export-oriented trading nation not to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.Melissa Lee: How will the Trans-Pacific Partnership benefit New Zealand small businesses not directly engaged in exporting?Hon CRAIG FOSS: The Trans-Pacific Partnership will also benefit thousands of small businesses and their employees that are not directly engaged in exporting—from lawyers to trucking businesses transporting goods to ports to a plumbing or cleaning business doing maintenance at a food-processing plant; the list goes on. Those businesses will all benefit from the improved export growth confidence and the improvement to the positive outlook of those export businesses they are working with. Even those small businesses currently not facing tariffs will have growth opportunities as non-trade barriers between Trans-Pacific Partnership countriesare addressed. I repeat and agree with the words of Helen Clark who said that it would be unthinkable for New Zealand—Mr SPEAKER: Order! We have heard that before.