The Government is pressing ahead with getting the deal formally signed, which has previously been stipulated to happen in the first half of this year. RNZ today confirmed reports previously published in the Herald that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to visit New Zealand this year. There will be pressure to have any wrinkles in the FTA ironed out before then.
There is nothing to stop McClay from signing the agreement before securing Labour’s support, but it would make the deal vulnerable to the opposition party walking away before it is ratified in Parliament, which would be embarrassing for the coalition.
There are also high stakes for Labour, which won’t want to support a deal it does not like. However, neither will it want to dismiss the deal and cause embarrassment for the country in the eyes of a large economic partner.
Labour has suggested it may support the India FTA, but the party is negotiating with the Government before making a final call.
“Signing a free trade agreement if you don’t have the majority support in Parliament, and at this point they don’t, would be recklessly irresponsible,” Hipkins said.
Hipkins said a reply from McClay to his letter took about a month to receive. He then wrote back to the minister four days later.
Hipkins has not had a response to his second letter.
“We set out… in even more detail what the concerns were because the letter I received from Todd McClay did not address those.
“We’ve gone back and quoted specific sections from the text of the agreement that we have seen… that contradict the public statements that the Government has been making,” Hipkins said.
“Certainly the text of the agreement does conflict with what they have been saying publicly about it.”
The Herald has previously reported, citing text of the FTA, a contradiction between McClay’s public statements on how the agreement tackles migration and what the deal actually says.