Q+A: Trade Minister Tim Groser - secrecy is a part of all trade negotiations
Trade Minister Tim Groser told TVOne’s Q+A programme that secrecy is a part of all trade negotiations and New Zealanders
can trust the Government to get a good deal for them.
He was commenting on the progress of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, which he said could be finalised in the
first six months of 2015:
“On issues that are quite legitimate concern to New Zealanders, like you know does TPP mean we're going to have to pay
more for our subsidised drugs? I mean that’s a completely legitimate concern to New Zealand, and I've made a variety of
statements on that matter. But when we're able to look at the final deal I'm extremely confident that the government
will be able to convey to New Zealanders that there is no cause for concern whatsoever here and the deal there provides
all the protection New Zealanders would expect a responsible New Zealand government to do for them. But until that is
there you know there's all these leaked earlier proposals, some of which are ridiculously extreme proposals. We've made
a lot of progress there, but let's have the debate when we're looking at something that’s real, not some version of
reality.”
“You can't have it both ways. If you want to be in the tent you respect that confidentiality and New Zealand will
certainly be doing that. This is really only a transitional problem. At the end of the day if there is a deal, if there
is a deal, all of this, all the fine detail will be out in the political debate and people can then look at a balanced
view, not on the basis of assumptions on what things might be, but on the basis of the deal that is there. It's always
been like that in trade negotiations, and I'm increasingly confident of the direction of travel on some of these
sensitive issues. “
Mr Groser said the mid-term elections in the United States could prove positive for the deal:
“What has happened in this election is the Republicans have their position strengthened at the upper end of Republican
expectations. They’ve now got control of both Houses, Congress and the Senate, and it will be very interesting to see
how this plays out. What is already clear from public comments, let alone any more considered private conversations
which I and Mr McCully and the Prime Minister will obviously hope to have in the next few days, is that trade has been
identified immediately as something that could provide the basis of some bipartisan movement forward. Now I'll wait and
see, but that certainly sounds promising from a New Zealand perspective.”
Mr Groser said he hasn’t given up on a FTA with Russia, after a deal had to be abandoned due to political events earlier
this year:
“The situation in Eastern Ukraine clearly is very very fragile . We would need to feel that the momentum was turned back
in a more positive direction. This is the most disturbing thing to happen to security on the European continent for
decades, and right now even though I'm, you know, the Trade Minister, I'm actually looking at this through a political
lens not a commercial lens. But I'm hoping we will see some signs of rapprochement between the major western powers and
Russia and we will have enough political space then to resume what has always been a very long term but very interesting
commercial and strategic play by New Zealand.”
Q+A, 9-10am Sundays on TV ONE and one hour later on TV ONE plus 1. Repeated Sunday evening at 11:35pm. Streamed live at
www.tvnz.co.nz
Thanks to the support from NZ On Air.
Q+A is on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/NZQandA#!/NZQandA and on Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/NZQandA
ends