“The timetable for tariff reductions in the NZ - China Trade Agreement blows New Zealand's APEC commitments out of the water. This is good news for the TCF sector.
“The NZ China Trade Agreement may be called a Free Trade Agreement but it is in essence a “Managed” Trade Agreement” said Robert Reid.
“The National Distribution Union has treated these negotiations very seriously. We made early submissions to the Government for a gradual, rather than an immediate elimination of tariffs as did the NZ Council of Trade Unions and Textiles NZ.
“We were part of two delegations to China during the negotiation period that met with Chinese Trade Unions, Communist Party and Government officials. We strongly put the case to them that China should not demand the immediate elimination of tariffs as part of their negotiations with New Zealand. We received a good hearing,” Robert Reid said.
“However if the TCF industry is to survive we need two further commitments from our Government. First is that any future unilateral tariff reduction programme by New Zealand will not phase our tariffs faster than the China Trade Agreement. Second, the Government must provide a major funding programme to the local TCF industry to help it adjust, transform and innovate to meet the reducing tariff regime in this trade agreement. Such funding has been scaled down since the commitments made at the time the tariff reduction programme was re-started,” said Robert Reid.
National Distribution Union
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