van de Molen TimTARIFF (PACER PLUS) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed from 14 August.TIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Look I enjoy rising to take calls on trade-related bills. I've always had a passion and interest in trade and the Tariff (PACER Plus) Amendment Bill here in its second reading is no exception to that.This is a piece of work that was started under the former Government. Actually it was first developed in 2009. It's gone through a reasonably prolonged process to ensure that it meets the needs of all the expected signatories of this particular bill. As this House will well be aware the previous Government had a strong focus on trade understanding the benefits it presents to us as New Zealanders when we get these sorts of trade agreements right when we can match those with the needs of the countries we're looking to trade with. It provides a significant mutual benefit to all concerned parties. Certainly that is the intent of the PACER-Plus bill as well.We have 11 different signatories forming part of this particular agreement and I'd just like to touch in fact on not only the fact that we're doing this PACER-Plus agreement but also that there's been a lot of other work in some of those different free-trade agreements that I touched on. We've seen the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a significant trade agreement progress under the last Government as well. Obviously we had a bit of a name change and a few other tweaks that added a couple of extra pages into the end of it which effectively—those changes to it were I think the two words at the start of the title which then subsequently allegedly made it comprehensive and progressive. Regardless though we're encouraged to see that the now Government has understood some of the benefits that these trade agreements can provide and were able to come to the party and support that one through noting their significant objections earlier in the debate on that particular bill.Also PACER-Plus—another good piece of work. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement—that's still progressing at the moment. There are a number of trade elements that were a key focus for the previous Government and I just encourage this Government to continue to maintain to enhance and to grow those trade opportunities for New Zealanders because we are such a high-export - focused nation. We need these continued ongoing and access-improving opportunities to provide us the potential to grow and to develop and actually that's exactly what we're trying to offer here for some of our Pacific partners too.So this is a trade agreement. As I mentioned they all need to be mutually beneficial and what we're looking at here is of course providing some benefits to New Zealand in terms of more secure and more stable access more certainty reduced tariffs and reduced red tape but actually it's focusing on providing significant opportunity into the Pacific community. We do take our leadership role in the Pacific seriously. We are a major player in that space and of course it is important that we provide opportunities where we can to support the trade focus the economic development and the general prosperity of our Pacific partners as well.We currently have exports of about $650 million - odd.Simon O'Connor: How much?TIM VAN DE MOLEN: It's $650 million a year in terms of goods and services exported into the 11 countries involved in the PACER-Plus agreement so this will be a great way to help reduce some of those tariffs. Actually it's worth noting that a number of the signatories are not currently part of the World Trade Organization which means there are no maximum tariff levels in terms of what they can potentially impose on goods coming across their borders and that's something that we are facing as a challenge in some of those areas. So this will help to reduce that over time.There's actually quite a long time frame involved in this particular agreement to enable those Pacific countries to adapt and to evolve and capture the benefits without being unnecessarily hamstrung or impacted negatively by the potential revenue impact that may have from reduced tariffs. It was good to note that the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee focused on that as one particular area and were comfortable that the revenue impact had been addressed and was acceptable and that there were time frames and options around extending the reduction in tariffs if there was to be a potentially detrimental impact from the result of bringing those in earlier.So actually this was progressed through select committee and supported by the majority without amendment so it's a good piece of legislation. Obviously the Green Party did oppose that. That's no surprise when it comes to trade. Hopefully perhaps under Government they might be able to expand their understanding of the benefits of trade and what that can provide to all signatories. I reiterate that actually for any agreement to be successful it has to provide benefit to all parties or else why would they sign up for it? And that's exactly what we're looking at here as well.Coming back to some of those benefits these Pacific partners will capture it's about improving the economic development opportunities for them creating jobs and wealth raising the standard of living off the back of that and actually providing them with a more predictable trading environment as well. These things are really important for a small country looking to participate in a larger international context. To have that certainty is absolutely key and this will provide that for them through the measures proposed under the Tariff (PACER Plus) Amendment Bill.Now unlike a number of other free-trade agreements there are actually several different development components to this agreement as well—requirements of New Zealand and Australia to add additional value into these particular areas. So combined we're injecting A$25 million to help modernise customs facilities and biosecurity services to reduce those biosecurity risks and to help meet international obligations in those Pacific settings so that they can trade at a more sustainable and internationally accepted level with their particular partners not just those incorporated in this deal but actually in other areas that they may look to trade or interact with as well. So that A$25 million is a pretty significant injection to help promote that development and those systems as well.Alongside that we are committing to spending 20 percent of our development assistance in the Pacific region for the first five years once this agreement comes into place. We're talking 20 percent of around $340 million or it will be about $340 million—that's the 20 percent. That's injecting a significant amount in terms of economic infrastructure and capacity-building so this is again a significant benefit for these signatories.I encourage the Greens to understand that actually there are benefits alongside this. It's not just about providing additional income and more security for New Zealand's exporters and reducing their risks and tariffs; it's actually about providing significant opportunity through that wealth creation through the certainty of trading parameters through the improved systems that enable them to interact internationally and actually through wealth creation via more jobs more certainty around those jobs and the raised standard of living that I talked about initially.I'd just like to come back to those 11 signatories. Now this agreement comes into place six months after at least eight of those signatories sign up. So there are 11. They all obviously have to go back and gain agreement with their individual country settings in terms of what their expectations are how they align that the time frames etc. but once we have eight signed up and on board—and there's no reason why we shouldn't believe that will happen promptly—then this will come into place. So we progress from there. That would be the start point of the five-year contribution when we are committing that additional 20 percent to economic development as well.Alongside that this is providing additional benefits into those communities. It enhances their access to trade but also their access to sourcing finance or additional capital and to supplying markets that may be perhaps outside their reach at the moment or that perhaps they are unable to access because of the inability to provide confidence around the biosecurity risks or the particular processes that they manage with their export products. So this really helps to provide that additional capacity for them as well. Alongside that that additional injection of capital from New Zealand and Australia can provide significant opportunity in developing aviation and maritime infrastructure for example. So really this is a collective agreement that is providing of course benefit for New Zealand but also for all of our Pacific partners that are looking to sign up as signatories. It comes back to—as I said at the start—our importance around taking a regional leadership role in the Pacific. We take that seriously on this side of the House and so I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.