McClay Todd: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcClay Todd: General Debate[Sitting date: 30 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:10021. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TODD McCLAY (Minister of Trade): Kia ora to the House and thank you to that last speaker Nanaia Mahuta. Can I say that the OECD has suggested that a 10 percentage point increase in trade openness—that is a share of exports plus imports to GDP—lifts GDP per capita by 4 percent. I think deep down that New Zealanders know this. I think New Zealanders know that we are a trading nation. They know that the very first people who came to this nation traded with each other: they traded between villages between hapū between different iwi groups. New Zealanders know that when settlers came to this country they traded with them. And later on as there were better trading links created and transportation then New Zealanders—Māori and others—sold to Australia.We are a trading nation and I think everybody in all parts of this Parliament and around the country knows that without selling the things that we produce in abundance and the great services that our education system provides to New Zealand overseas then as a country we are poorer not richer and as a Government we do not get to provide the quality of living and a standard of life that New Zealanders demand and deserve.That is why I think in particular when the Hon Annette King said earlier to Michael Woodhouse that the reason so many New Zealanders are coming back to New Zealand is everywhere else is worse that that is a bit glass half-empty. What she meant to say was that actually New Zealand is in a privileged position and a better position than almost every other country we have a relationship with and almost every other country we trade with because of the hard work of this Government and successive Governments before us when it came to opening up markets and giving opportunity to New Zealanders to sell the things that we produce to countries overseas. In many cases our nearest neighbours do not have the same quality of production to consume and to enjoy.So that is why New Zealanders are coming home because they know that actually it is better here than in many other countries in the world. We had 2.3 percent economic growth in 2015—much higher than most others that the Opposition likes to compare New Zealand with—with forecasts from Treasury of growth rates of 3 percent for 2016-17. The manufacturing sector has notched up 41 straight months of expansion and services which at 70 percent of our economy have been growing at the fastest level in the last 7 years. Indeed our unemployment rate has just dropped to 5.3 percent. One hundred and forty-eight thousand additional jobs are expected over the next 3 years. Mrs King that is why New Zealanders are coming home; not because everywhere else is worse than New Zealand but because New Zealanders are working hard the economy is growing up and down the country and there are opportunities for them and their families back here—that is jobs.Let us dig down into this a bit further. Tourism directly contributes $10.6 billion to the economy. Beef exports topped $3.3 billion—up a third in the last year. International education another export—$2.8 billion—is supporting more than 30000 Kiwi jobs. Wine exports—the wine industry has just had its best year ever with $1.5 billion worth of sales which are predominantly exports and 14 percent growth on last year. The ICT sector is actually a growing sector—one of the fast growing parts of our economy. It is still modest but has had 9 percent growth since 2008. The kiwifruit sector in my area is having the best year it has had for a long time through the hard work of kiwifruit growers.So there is good news in all of this and that good news is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) because in all of those areas I spoke about there is greater access greater liberalisation and better access to 800 million consumers in 12 countries who spend $28 trillion every year. It will be worth $2.7 billion extra to our economy by 2030. This is absolutely about good access to countries that a previous Government—a Labour Government—said it wanted free-trade agreements with.And here is the final bit of it: Andrew Little knows that he got it wrong when he said to New Zealanders that he would oppose the TPP. That is why we have heard nothing from Labour on this for more than a month and we will hear nothing more except at the end of the year when it comes time to vote against hard-working New Zealanders having access to 800 million consumers who spend $28 trillion every year. Mrs King as with your last Government Helen Clark was always right.