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Zespri Chairman Peter McBride, CEO Lain Jager, my ministerial colleague Todd McLay, Todd Muller, our candidate for the Bay of Plenty – well known to all of you because of his close involvement with your industry – ladies and gentlemen.

Around the world, friends of India, strategists, business groups and others are all starting to ask a rather important question. With the landslide victory of the BJP over Congress, we have seen a shift in the political tectonic plates. What implications will this have, if any, for India’s approach to international economic negotiations? No doubt, even that is too confining; as Minister of Climate Change Issues, I am also wondering about that matter in terms of the international climate change negotiations. But today, I wear my Trade hat.

Thank you for this opportunity to address the NZ China Centre at my old Alma Mater, Victoria University.

I of course understand there are other pathways to relative professional success than tertiary qualifications. But having a great education from an excellent University is certainly one of them. I have never forgotten that. Nor have I forgotten one or two of the key Professors of this University who helped me so much as a young man.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

It’s a pleasure to be here in Manila on my first visit as New Zealand Trade Minister alongside a delegation of New Zealand companies. 

I’d like to acknowledge in particular the business chambers that have supported today’s event.

Prime Minister John Key was to have visited Manila with a business delegation in November last year before plans were put on hold by the tragedy that was Typhoon Yolanda.

Given the theme of your Conference – "Rising Asia: Messages for the Next 20 Years", it took me no time to select a topic for my speech – "TPP and Trade Integration in the Asia-Pacific".

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

I would first of all like to thank the NZ/China Council for providing this forum for business leaders here in Auckland for the APEC Business Advisory Council meetings. To our foreign guests, especially those who are making their first visit to New Zealand let me extend the warmest of welcomes.

In terms of the climate - both literal and economic - you have come to New Zealand at the right time. We hope you will do more than talk about the APEC Business Advisory Agenda and actually do some business here. This is a country very much open for business.

First, I would like to congratulate the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, NZ Inc and all the agencies and sponsors for putting this event together.

Thank you for another opportunity to speak to the National Press Club of Japan.

When I spoke here in April I noted with regret that the WTO negotiating agenda had stalled as the regional trade agenda moved with extraordinary speed.

If anything that was an understatement. To underline the point, let me use my own country’s active trade agenda as an example.

In the past few weeks, I have been part of a team focused overwhelmingly on the short-term management of the risks arising from a possible breach in our proud food safety record. It has been an extraordinary whole of Government response, involving many Ministers from the Prime Minister down, multiple agencies and working closely with a number of commercial players.

I returned recently from representing New Zealand at the Summit of the ‘Pacific Alliance’ in Colombia. We are now an official observer of the Pacific Alliance – along with Australia, Canada (Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, was also present in Colombia) and a handful of other countries.

This arresting phrase – ‘Agriculture: New Zealand’s Silicon Valley’ – is not mine. It is Sir Graeme Harrison’s and I can’t improve on it. Sir Graeme, you will recall, is the founder and Chairman of ANZCO Foods, one of New Zealand’s largest exporters.

I like the phrase for three complementary reasons:

Je souhaiterais tout d’abord vous remercier vivement pour l’opportunité de m’adresser à vous. En guise d’introduction, je dirais que nous nous trouvons à un tournant particulièrement intéressant dans l’évolution du système commercial international. Littéralement parlant, il n’y a rien que nous puissions décrire comme neuf dans le système actuel.

New Zealand is the formal administrator, or legal ‘Depositary’ of the TPP Agreement. This reflects the real negotiating history of TPP, which started as a strategic decision by Singapore and NZ to negotiate a bilateral FTA in the 1990s with precisely this concept – a wider Asia Pacific FTA - in mind. That led eventually to P4 and, in turn, to TPP today.

Let me start with a statement of principle. It’s about the relatively open trade and payments system that we have inherited. It has flaws and shortcomings. There are many vulnerable developing countries at early stages of development that have yet to enjoy its real benefits. For all that, this relatively open system has served three generations of our predecessors well.

Thank you for this opportunity to put forward some ideas about Global Governance and multilateral institutions in the first quarter of the 21st Century.  In responding to your invitation, I will stick more or less exclusively to the multilateral economic agenda, with a strong emphasis on trade and climate change – my two Ministerial responsibilities.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today at the launch of the ANZ India New Zealand Business Forum's India Viewpoint.

I want to commend ANZ for this initiative and the advice to business that it has compiled about how to succeed in India. 

The publication echoes advice for a range of big emerging economies with which New Zealand businesses are increasingly engaging, for example China, or Indonesia, or Brazil. 

I would like to start with a small reflective tribute to the late Sir Frank Holmes, an absolute stalwart of the PECC. This must be the first formal or informal PECC meeting I have attended in the last thirty years without Sir Frank being an integral part of the discussion.

Discours au medef (The main French employers federation) paris, 25 mai 2012

Hon Tim Groser, Ministre du Commerce international

C’est enfoncer une porte ouverte que de dire que les gouvernements, partout à travers le monde, cherchent la croissance, et plus particulièrement, une croissance dans des emplois productifs et bien rémunérés.

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, distinguished guests

It is always a pleasure to address these two important institutions, the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Food and Agriculture Trade Policy Council.

I was honoured to be invited to join the Council in 2005 when I retired from being the Chairman of the WTO Agriculture Negotiations and to join such a great group of people who have made such a contribution in research, agribusiness or public life, to a more rational approach to agriculture policy.

First of all, on behalf of my three other Parliamentary colleagues who are with us today – the Hon Jonathan Coleman, and two new MPs, Dr Jian Yang and Maggie Barry, MP for the North Shore - I would like to acknowledge the North Harbour Club and the fantastic work you have done over many years promoting excellence amongst young people.

Mr President

Thank you for the opportunity to address Trade Ministers at this 8th Ministerial Conference of the WTO. I would like to welcome the four new WTO members, Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Samoa, and Vanuatu.

With respect to the Doha Round, we need to face the facts; wishful thinking will serve no one’s interests.