Smith Lockwood: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Smith Lockwood: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:607;Page:5045] 
10.  
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (NZ National—Rodney) 
 to the  
Minister for Trade Negotiations 
: What does the United States trade policy agenda for 2003 say about the possibility of a free-trade agreement with New Zealand and when does he expect such an agreement to be negotiated? 
Hon JIM SUTTON (Minister for Trade Negotiations) 
: 
 The US trade policy agenda focuses on initiatives that the office of the US Trade Representative currently has under way. It therefore does not mention a trade agreement with New Zealand. That possibility was explicitly mentioned by Ambassador Zoellick last November when he said: “We will be soliciting the views of Congress on this matter as we move forward with the Australian FTA.” Those negotiations with Australia have just commenced. The possibility of a free-trade agreement with New Zealand was also raised with the US Trade Representative during testimony in the US Congress Ways and Means Committee meeting on the US trade policy agenda. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: Is the reason New Zealand is not included among the countries with which the United States is proposing to negotiate free-trade agreements in the future—countries including Australia Morocco Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Botswana Lesotho Namibia and Swaziland—that we are now less relevant or is there some other reason; if so what? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: As the largest marketplace in the world the US was always going to have a busy dance card. Aside from the North America Free Trade Agreement the US has only recently become interested in what Bob Zoellick calls competitive liberalisation. The US clearly has a broad range of reasons for initiating negotiations with many countries from South Africa to Vietnam—most of which have disagreed with US policies on occasion. We are actively working to encourage the United States to add New Zealand to that dance card. 
Martin Gallagher 
: Specifically what has the Government been doing to advance the case for a trade agreement in Washington? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: We have attracted encouraging support amongst the US business community and in Congress for a trade agreement with New Zealand. Over 250 US businesses have signed a letter to the US administration. Fifty members of the House of Representatives signed a letter prepared by Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn and 20 senators signed letters to the US President in support of a free-trade agreement with New Zealand. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Why does the Minister for Trade Negotiations not admit to this House that since the armchair generalship of the Prime Minister there is no possibility of a free-trade agreement between New Zealand and the United States of America while Helen Clark is Prime Minister? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I do not believe that the member’s comments are true at all. It is the Government’s hope and expectation that the relationship with the United States will stay strong despite our differences over the war in Iraq. If there were any damage I know that the honourable members of the Opposition would do their level best to maximise it. 
Rod Donald 
: Would this Government ever adopt a trade policy that sacrificed fundamental New Zealand principles such as a multilateral world order and the right and responsibility of the Government to protect New Zealand’s sovereignty and foster our identity just so that it could get a free-trade deal with the United States? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: This Government has clearly decided it will not sacrifice our integrity and our right to make principled decisions on foreign policy that serve the interests of our people. 
Larry Baldock 
: Given that the US trade policy agenda in 2003 mentions that the US has concerns over New Zealand’s genetic modification (GM) moratorium as one of the roadblocks to free-trade negotiations is the Minister confident of New Zealand’s improved ranking when the moratorium is lifted this October? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: New Zealand has discussed our approach to GM issues extensively with the United States—an information exchange that has greatly assisted it to understand better the approach we have taken. New Zealand can be proud of our robust common-sense decision on GM and of the democratic and open process by which it has been developed. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: In what way does the Minister think the Prime Minister’s “bleedingly obvious” comments about what an Al Gore administration might have done differently in Iraq—comments that she has claimed “were measured and acceptable”—and her limited apology for them have assisted in getting New Zealand on to the US free-trade negotiations agenda which includes 100 countries but not New Zealand? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: Apart from noting that the member double-counts quite a number of those countries I simply reinforce what I said earlier. If there were any damage from those alarms and discursive events I know I could rely on the honourable member of the Opposition to try to maximise that.