Grigg NicolaNICOLA GRIGG (National—Selwyn): Since I've had the privilege of being the member of Parliament for Selwyn I have watched this Government slowly but surely turn the screws on our productive sector. Our primary industries and our manufacturers are subjected daily to regulatory requirements and scrutiny that only serve to reduce their ability to grow and expand to employ more people and to earn a living. It's therefore a small concession I suppose that the Government is still seemingly interested in pursuing a free-trade agenda and that no doubt will be a small consolation to those producers looking for markets for their products and services. I must say it is with some relief that I've learnt the Minister for Trade and Export Growth is actually going to get on a plane and visit the EU and the UK to advance those much-needed free-trade agreements.The National Party has a long proud history of pursuing and securing high-quality comprehensive trade agreements and this is no exception. This House has the Hon Tim Groser to thank for that. Therefore I join my colleagues in supporting this Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Legislation Bill and extend my warm greetings to the peoples of those RCEP nations. I do this because trade is about people people who like us who like our products and who want to do business with us. We have come a long way from sending shiploads of frozen mutton from Port Chalmers to London in the 19th century and that's in part due to this country's liberalised trade agenda but also to the agility and ambition of our exporters particularly our primary producers. We now export about $82 billion in goods and services every year and trade supports 600000 Kiwis into jobs.In opening up access to 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific RCEP will bring tremendous opportunities to those manufacturers and producers that I've mentioned. It will cover trade in goods trade in services investment economic and technical cooperation intellectual property competition and dispute settlement. It also recognises ASEAN as an emerging regional economic architecture. While the great nation of India is not currently a signatory we stand willing and ready to welcome them if and when they wish.As a former agri-portfolio manager at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) I've witnessed first-hand how difficult it is to achieve both market access and market traction let alone see sales and profit. Export is a long hard graft. The Productivity Commission's recently reported on how the so-called select group of frontier firms have achieved traction and growth but this House should be under no illusion it's been done easily; those wins are hard-fought. NZTE research shows that the five major challenges for our exporters are building brand awareness finding the right partners and channels strong overseas competition understanding how offshore markets differ from New Zealand markets and determining the right export pricing strategy and product-related costs to remain competitive and profitable. Historically our economies relied heavily on a few primary commodities for exports and I disagree with this volume-to-value mantra that the Government's using because I think it devalues the high-quality products that we have historically exported. We are however increasingly seeing offshore consumers becoming more discerning.As I've previously said in this House Selwyn is an economic powerhouse underpinned by the work of our local exporters especially our food producers. But in my travels across the electorate I've met regularly with businesses screaming out for both better business support and more business opportunity. That opportunity will come with the RCEP agreement. It's expected to significantly reduce complexity and compliance costs for exporters through a single rule book for 15 markets. I hope that perhaps the Government would apply that same ethos back here at home. Thank you.