National Interest Analysis: New Zealand-Thailand Closer Economic Partnership Agreement

8. Implementation

A small number of legislative and regulatory amendments are required to align New Zealand’s domestic legal regime with certain rights and obligations created under the CEP Agreement and thereby to enable New Zealand to ratify the Agreement. Proposed legislation, the New Zealand/Thailand Closer Economic Partnership Agreement Bill, will provide for the following substantive changes:

• amendments to the Tariff Act 1988 which would mean that preferential tariffs conferred by FTAs can be implemented by Order in Council under the Tariff Act. A new provision would be inserted into the Tariff Act creating a Schedule to the Tariff Act, which would list those countries with whom New Zealand has entered into an FTA. Thailand would then be included in this list. A further Order in Council pursuant to the Tariff Act would then establish the specific schedule of preferential tariffs for Thailand as conferred under the CEP Agreement.
  
• amendments to the Tariff Act 1988 to establish a new general mechanism to implement the right to apply transitional safeguards provided for under the CEP Agreement with Thailand and possible future FTAs. The mechanism would provide New Zealand industry with a remedy where it were found to be suffering serious injury as a result of a surge in competing imports pursuant to the CEP Agreement or future FTAs. It is intended to give industry the right to request the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Commerce to initiate a safeguards investigation, and enable the Minister, if warranted, to apply a transitional safeguard measure against such imports.

In addition, amendments to the Customs and Excise Regulations 1996 will be required to enable administration of the rules of origin set out in the Agreement.

The Regulatory Impact Statement prepared for the CEP Agreement contains further details on the legislative and regulatory amendments required to implement the CEP.

The undertaking reached under the CEP Agreement for New Zealand to accept Thai chefs to work temporarily in New Zealand does not require legislative or regulatory amendment, but rather a change to NZIS Operational Policy.

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