Labour is demanding to see the official advice behind the Government\u2019s Free Trade Agreement with India before signing off on the deal – a move that could decide its fate in Parliament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Labour leader Chris Hipkins on Sunday laid out his conditions – stronger protections\u00a0for migrant workers, clarity around a $33 billion private investment in India commitment and the unredacted advice – before putting Labour\u2019s weight behind the FTA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Government needs Labour\u2019s support following NZ First\u2019s \u201cregrettable\u201d opposition to the deal, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters saying it gives too much away for New Zealanders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven that the Foreign Minister has felt strongly enough to say he won\u2019t support the deal, we also want to understand exactly what advice officials have provided to Ministers,\u201d Hipkins said in Auckland on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ask that it is provided, in full, in the spirit of bipartisanship and the best interest of New Zealanders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hipkins said the difference between the India FTA, and the UK and EU FTAs was that Labour had a majority in Parliament, so did not need the then-Opposition\u2019s support to get the deals through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we still involved them in it, probably in a similar time frame to the one that they have involved us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hipkins said with the European Union FTA, by the time it came to passing the legislation through the House, National was the government, \u201cso they had access to all of the advice\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re simply asking to see all the advice that they have relied on in negotiating [the FTA]. Winston Peters has seen all of that advice and says that it’s a bad deal. I think we’ve got a responsibility to do some due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not answer if the Government had given National unredacted advice on the United Kingdom FTA.<\/p>\n
Trade Minister Tood McClay told\u00a0Q+A\u00a0on Sunday there are clauses in the deal on both sides about respecting international labour laws, but would be going through Labour\u2019s concerns with them this week.<\/p>\n
He gave Labour an assurance around the quality of education visas, saying the deal would give incentives around PhD students, but did not go as far as committing to provide the unredacted advice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll sit down and talk to them about that and see where we go,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a no, but I want to sit down and work through it with [Labour] first, I\u2019m not saying yes or no on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
McClay previously described the deal as a \u201conce-in-a-generation\u202fagreement\u201d, which would create opportunities New Zealand exporters have never had in India.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis deal is in New Zealand\u2019s best interest and will deliver thousands of jobs and billions in\u202fadditional\u202fexports.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interest approached McClay on Monday for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour is demanding to see the official advice behind the Government\u2019s Free Trade Agreement with India before signing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-286154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}