The Government’s bid to secure Labour's backing for its India free trade agreement (FTA) could reach a critical point by the end of this week.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says his party is still waiting on a response from Trade Minister Todd McClay addressing concerns around migrant worker protections, a $33 billion private investment commitment, and access to unredacted official advice, before pledging his party's support.
McClay said that response is being put together currently, and was expected by the end of the week.
It followed a meeting between Hipkins, Labour trade spokesperson Damien O’Connor, McClay and Immigration Minister Erica Stanford two weeks ago.
Hipkins said this was to; “talk about the concerns that we had raised in the letter, and they indicated at the end of that that they were going to come back to us with a formal response, including the information that we'd asked for, I haven't received that yet”.
“I'm leaving goodwill on the table. We still want to find a way forward.”
If National was taking Labour’s support for granted, Hipkins answered: “Well at this point, they still haven't asked for it.”
The Government needs Labour’s support following NZ First’s “regrettable” opposition to the deal, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters saying it gives too much away for New Zealanders.
McClay said the meeting and discussions itself was very constructive.
“They raised some points that they wanted clarification on. Officials were there to run through it all, we made some steps forward, but ultimately we said we'll come back to them. There's a few more things we want to consider in the meantime."
“We went through a number of issues with them, and are to come back to them,” McClay said. “It's being put together at the moment, and we'll look to do that by the end of this week. There have been ongoing conversations.”
McClay previously said on TVNZ's Q+A he would not commit to provide the unredacted advice to Labour.
“It’s not a no, but I want to sit down and work through it with [Labour] first, I’m not saying yes or no on TV.”
McClay said a lot of advice they receive is redacted when released as; "we will be doing trade negotiations with others, and some of that may have information that could harm us or a future government's negotiations."
In response to this, Hipkins on Tuesday said they would respect the confidentiality of any advice, “as we would if we were in government”.
“They're asking for our support. I think it's important that we see the advice that they have based their decisions on.”
2 Comments
It seems fairly obvious that from the Indian side they are hardly screaming out for NZ products. That in itself immediately questions whether the advantages to NZ are all that are being touted. You cannot fail to be cynical about political posturing and/or scrapping over any event or development which in reality is of little consequence or advantage to our nation. In other words stop the trumpeting and get on with matters of real substance and value.
The consequences of the agreement apparently demanding / "aspiring" to a $33 billion investment by private NZ business & an immigration / work permit quota NZ can't say no to under any future circumstances seems to need a lot more public explanation than so far provided by Luxon.
I know I'm a bit of a dinosaur however I see no obvious reason why immigration & guaranteed investment have to be agreed in order to trade goods.
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