McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It gives me pleasure to rise and speak in the second reading debate on this piece of legislation which is extremely important to every single New Zealander. The reason for that is quite simple: when it comes to trade trade creates jobs and jobs deliver for New Zealanders and for their families. We are a trading nation and so the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)—it's quite a mouthful. It might even be the first time Mr Parker that I've said it in full there the CPTPP and it could well be the last. The point here though is that it is virtually identical to the original TPP.Now I think that what we should do in this House when it comes to trade is put the small part of politics aside so that what we can do is what's right for New Zealand. There will always be an opportunity to say that deals can be better. Maybe there are parts of them that should change over time but ultimately when it comes to the things that are important to New Zealanders—the last speaker said Sharing in the benefits of trade."—there isn't any difference between this and the original TPP when it comes to sharing those benefits. When it comes to what most New Zealanders actually think of trade which is the trade in goods and the trade in services equally there is no difference. That's why this is a good piece of legislation a good bill and a good trade deal: because the original TPP was also.The last speaker David Clark who now looks after health for the Government but previously was a trade spokesman when he was in Opposition mentioned a couple of areas that actually New Zealanders—exporters and producers—will benefit from straight away. He mentioned sheep meat and kiwifruit and forestry products. Equally under the revised TPP their treatment into these markets the tariff rates that fall away are identical to the original TPP deal. That's what makes this a good deal because the last one was good as well.I just want to touch on forestry products for a moment and make a plea to the trade Minister Mr Parker. It is good when we think of the environment that we now get to export forestry products and wood products—processed or otherwise—from New Zealand to these markets without any tariff restrictions on them. That's a good thing for New Zealanders. It does mean that some of those barriers at the ports that hold back the adding of value to logs in New Zealand before they are exported are coming down.Equally there is a lot of work to do around non-tariff barriers. If we take the free-trade agreement with China—and the New Zealand wood export industry believes they don't have a free-trade agreement with China—actually in many cases the products that could get to that market are not able to because of standards because of non-tariff barriers. We need to continue to focus on those but there is also a debate going on in the World Trade Organization (WTO) around the Environmental Goods Agreement. It's imperative that when Mr Parker and our negotiators go back to the WTO and the debate around the Environmental Goods Agreement kicks in again we insist that we get wood products as part of that agreement and that the tariffs fall away. The reason for that is we now have it under TPP which is very important for our wood-processing industry—imperative for adding value in New Zealand—so that it's not just logs going across the border.But the Environmental Goods Agreement is much larger than just the TPP and therefore if we can deliver the same outcome in the Environmental Goods Agreement as was under the National Government and TPP then actually the vast majority of the world very large markets including if the US is still there around the WTO then the US market opens up to us and that really will benefit so many parts of New Zealand and our wood processors. So I encourage him to continue to fight that.The one area in the original TPP where I think we would all have liked to have seen greater movement particularly around tariffs was around dairy. It wasn't able to be delivered but we took the position in Government that although it wasn't perfect it was better than not having the deal given the significant size of the markets into these countries that we wanted New Zealanders to export into and at the same time we would find other ways to come back and to improve dairy access. And I would again implore Mr Parker as he hops on a plane next week—to head off as good trade Ministers do to go and talk to other countries about better access for Kiwis—and he's on his way to Washington: actually it's a very short detour to go to Colombia to talk to them about the Pacific Alliance trade agreement.The thing about the Pacific Alliance trade agreement is that it has four countries in it. Three of them we now have a trade deal with which was the TPP and now the revised TPP. One of them we have a trade deal directly with which is Chile. So for those four counties under TPP for two of them it's a first deal: Mexico and Peru. And the problem we have under TPP is our dairy access to Mexico—and some other product—is not perfect. It was held back because of resistance primarily from the US and the US has better access for dairy than New Zealand does. That needs to be fixed. Well it hasn't been fixed in the revised TPP because market access remained the same but it was always going to be revised and made better in the Pacific Alliance. That's why it's concerning to hear Mr Parker say that some of these countries are not sure they want to do it now because they have the TPP. Well that's fine for them because there is no barrier around tariff for their goods to come to New Zealand for anything under TPP—over time or straight away—but for dairy into Mexico there is and that was the reason for the Pacific Alliance deal.The second part of the reason that the Pacific Alliance is important is that Colombia is not part of the revised TPP. It is not a large market for New Zealand because they've gone through many years of guerrilla warfare and they've been closed off to much of the world. But we supported them and encouraged them and they found peace last year. Last year they agreed to take part in the Pacific Alliance trade negotiation that includes New Zealand. Their market is opening up to the world; their economy is growing quickly. It's important we have a trade deal with them because they were not able to come to the revised TPP. I think they want to but Mr Parker needs to say to them on his way to Washington next week if he's able to stop off that if they want to get access to these other countries that are in the revised TPP they cannot without New Zealand's agreement because it takes a unanimous agreement of all of those countries and they must remain committed to the Pacific Alliance trade negotiation. It's the only way we're going to get better access for dairy and other products in Mexico it's the only way we're going to get a trade deal with Colombia quite quickly and I would encourage him to do that. It's very very important.It was disappointing that Columbia didn't send negotiators to the formal trade negotiation of the Pacific Alliance trade deal in New Zealand last month but it's not too late. Mr Parker shouldn't give up on the Pacific Alliance trade deal. He needs to go and see them and convince them. That's what a hard-working trade Minister does.The final thing I want to say is that when it came to the TPP we were the second country after Japan to ratify it. I remember the night it happened in this House when everybody said it was over it was a waste of time that the National Government and I as trade Minister were wasting this Parliament's time: the deal was dead. I want to congratulate the trade negotiators and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for not accepting what the Opposition at that time had said to them for getting on planes and going over and persuading everywhere. Our current ambassador to the WTO and our current lead negotiator Vangelis Vitalis got on planes day after day night after night and went around the remaining countries of the TPP without the US and convinced them of the importance of this deal. If those trade negotiators had listened to the Labour Party and the Green Party and the New Zealand First Party and the Māori Party at that time this deal would not be in front of us it would not be done and New Zealand would be poorer for it both through access to these other countries and also New Zealanders whose jobs depend upon those exports.We have some exceptional trade negotiators—the best in the world. When they turn up to these trade negotiations they are the smallest groups there. They don't have the hundreds of officials but they punch above their weight. It's them who deserve all of the credit for delivering the deal. Thank you."