Controversy surrounds the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China as Prime Minister Helen Clark gears up to sign the deal when she heads to Beijing early next month.
While many politicians and businesses support the move, there are voices calling for transparency and a deal that includes basic human rights and protection from shoddy products.
Green Party co-leader and Trade spokesperson Dr. Russel Norman is calling for the government to "end the secrecy" and release details of the FTA.
"This trade deal may have a bigger impact on New Zealand than most other government actions this year. Yet the public and parliament are still in the dark about its content only five weeks before it will be signed," he said in a press release.
Dr Norman expressed concern in four major areas of the FTA, including labour movement and law between the two countries; environmental and human rights clauses; provisions around the textile, clothing and footwear industries; and the pressure on waterways from further dairy conversions.
"These questions and many others remain unanswered yet the Government is proposing to go to China in April to sign the deal," he said.
"Currently it is Cabinet that has total control over the signing of international treaties. Parliament has no say over this agreement."
FTA May Worsen Slave Labour in China
Amnesty International New Zealand's former campaigns manager, Gary Reese, said last year that an FTA will probably make human rights abuses in China worse. He said talks of labour standards and rights will be voluntary and New Zealand will not set minimum labour standards in the deal.
"How is it going to improve labour standards? How does free trade benefit these people who are really suffering?"
He said child labour is on the rise, slave labour is rampant, there are hundreds of thousands of people in re-education-through-labour camps, and it is illegal to join or form a union in China.
"Only one union is legal and it is associated with the communist party, and they do not generally push issues like health and safety."
He said in 2002 there was an average of 1 million workplace accidents in China, and 140,000 people died.
Researchers suggest there are 20 million slaves in China today and much of this is to do with sweatshops, Mr Reese said at a debate at Victoria University last year.
"It's about coercive and forced labour, about people being restrained, locked in at night, being locked in their factories during the day.
"In China they have re-education-through-labour camps. We don't know how many people because it is a state secret. We believe possibly over 300,000 people, in these re-education-through-labour camps, without trial," Mr Reese said.
"Many of these people are producing products which are going to be exported."
FTA 'Significant Achievement', Goff
Currently New Zealand imports $4.8 billion worth of goods from China per year, while exports sit at 1.2 billion worth, according to Statistics New Zealand.
New Zealand Trade Minister Phil Goff predicted that the deal would boost New Zealand's exports of both goods and services to China by up to 4 billion a year.
Mr Goff said in a press release that finalising this FTA will be a "significant achievement" for New Zealand.
"Being the first developed country to negotiate a comprehensive FTA with China will present New Zealand with a unique platform for profiling our businesses in China and for strengthening existing commercial relationships," he said.
'Not At The Cost of Human Rights'
United Future leader Peter Dunne is not opposed to New Zealand entering a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China, but only for the huge economic returns to be had.
"I would hate it to be seen as support for the Chinese political regime," he said.
He says he does not want to see the human rights of New Zealanders compromised by a Free Trade Agreement with China.
"I think that New Zealand stands to benefit from a Free Trade Agreement. I think that we should pursue those opportunities but not at the cost of human rights."
He said the New Zealand Government would have to make clear to the Chinese right from the beginning that the human rights abuses under the communist regime are intolerable.
"I think the oppression of groups like Falun Gong, I think that harvesting of organs, the high use of executions, I think are the major issues as far as I am concerned."
"I just hope that the compromises that we have made to achieve an agreement aren't too great."
He said the Government would also have to watch that a whole lot of low quality manufactured goods do not flood the New Zealand market.
Human Rights and Trade Don't Mix, National
National Party trade spokesman Tim Groser said the New Zealand Government as well as all governments should be concerned with human rights issues.
But the idea of mixing human rights with trade is "essentially insane" in his view.
Mr. Groser was until recently, New Zealand's Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Chair of Agricultural Negotiations for the WTO.
He said New Zealand's agricultural industry would benefit the most from a Free Trade Agreement.
China's dairy consumption is growing 30 percent a year, and their own production levels are simply not enough to meet their needs, he said.
Free Tibet Sees No Advantage
Free Tibet national chairman Thuten Kesang says he does not see any advantage in an FTA with China. "The simple reason is we are too small and China is too big."
The only benefit will be to our agricultural industries, he said, and will have no benefit to our developing specialist technology industries.
"We are already flooded with Chinese goods."
He said the Chinese regime was using New Zealand as a "guinea pig" to provide opportunities to work with other nations.
"As a Tibetan, I think the western world is so set on doing business with China."
Tibetans did not use violence or terrorism to appeal for freedom, so it seems the world has forgotten them, he said.
Beyond trade in goods, the FTA agreement will cover the services sector, from insurance and banking to education and labour supply.
China has already sought agreement from New Zealand for specialist workers, including chefs and Chinese language teachers, to work in New Zealand.
The countries began FTA negotiations in July 2004.
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