Chris Hipkins will take a trade delegation to China this month in the first Prime Ministerial visit to the country since the covid-19 pandemic.
Hipkins said China was one of New Zealand’s most “signifiant, wide-ranging, and complex” relationships and it would be the first Prime Minister-led trade delegation since 2018.
As the world's second largest economy, China is NZ’s largest single trading partner and purchases almost 25% of its total exports.
Hipkins said the trade mission would focus on supporting emerging exports, such as gaming and health, in an effort to broaden the products sold overseas.
NZ has been making an effort to become less reliant on exporting to China, as geopolitical tensions have sometimes created difficulties in other countries' trading relationships.
On Friday, Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, and NZ jointly released the statement with the United States that condemned the use of trade practices that amount to economic coercion.
Reuters reported the statement said trade-related economic coercion and non-market policies threatened the multilateral trading system and harmed relations between countries.
A week ago, New Zealand declined an invitation to do joint military exercises with China and instead urged our biggest trading partner to communicate more with the United States.
While NZ does not have a formal military alliance with the US, it is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance and coordinates with NATO on some defense issues.
Hipkins will attend a NATO meeting in July, as well as visit Brussels to discuss the new trade deal with the European Union.
The Prime Minister would not say whether the trip to China would include a meeting with President Xi Jinping.
Hipkins said the war in Ukraine was likely to come up in conversations and NZ would express its opposition to the war and encourage China to use its influence to end the conflict.
“We’ve prided ourselves in our relationship with China in being stable and consistent in our position,” he said.
Where the NZ government has concerns or a difference of opinion with the Chinese government, it would continue to raise those concerns.
21 Comments
Why can't we afford to loose Xingmowang?
I think developing a range of trading partners would be the best for NZ. Chine being one of those. No one partner should be in a position that we can't afford to loose them or be manipulated by.
India, SE Asia in general and a lot of other parts of the world also have large populations, growing quickly economically. Would a wide approach not be in the best interest of NZ?
Agreed. In geopolitics, as in investment, one must diversify their portfolio widely to minimise risk and absorb shocks should they occur. I for one would love to see NZ have better trade ties to Vietnam, as they produce good quality goods at an affordable price, they have a lovely country to spend time in, and seem to be increasing their manufacturing base of late.
In the short to mid-term (say 5 to 10 years), NZ cannot lose China as a critical trading partner, as it's impossible to find another economy or economies that can buy the nearly $22 billion exports NZ sent to China. India, Indonesia, and Vietnam all need time to grow their middle class, assuming they want the stuff from NZ as China does today in the first place.
Volatile forestry market signals tough winter for contractors
https://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/300894659/volatile-forestry…
https://realproperty.news/forestry-dive-into-timber-prices-making-harve…
Fuel road user subsidies coming off this month
Lol, I remember after John Key visiting, he told us we should start learning mandarin..
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/key-urges-kids-to-learn-mandarin/T5AQKU2W…
A bit ominous I thought at the time.
Hipkins will attend a NATO meeting in July, as well as visit Brussels to discuss the new trade deal with the European Union.
The EU are fiercely protective of their own productive capacity in goods and services, therefore striking a deal with them is unlikely to get much in our favour in terms of terms or volume. This however, is a good opportunity for Hipkins to do something of value for the country. Jacinda effectiovely came out with a 10c piece and acted like it was a $100 note in relation to what we got from the 'deal' she struck with them. While I will not be voting Labour, I do hope Chris has some form of skills in negotiation to progress our trade relationship with the EU.
NZ pursuing trade deals with the West are a waste of time - witness the UK:
Biden and Sunak unveiled an “Atlantic Declaration” promising closer cooperation on economics, security, military and artificial intelligence between the United States and Britain.
But crucially missing from the U.S. side was any concrete commitment to a new bilateral trade deal. When Britain left the European Union in 2020, the historic departure from that trade bloc was calculatedly made with the aspiration of securing an alternative special trading arrangement with the United States.
The Conservative government made the securing of a U.S.-UK trade pact a commitment to British voters at the last general election in 2019. Nearly four years on, however, London is no closer to tying itself to the American raft after cutting itself loose from the EU. That drifting situation has caused unprecedented economic and political turmoil in Britain. Link
Hipkins might as well go overseas for most of the lead-up to the coming election because our rabid left-wing media seems to be doing most of his electioneering for him, judging by the constant flow of anti-National/Luxon stories we are now being subjected to.
Sometimes I think all these pro-Labour journalists would like to see NZ become a one-party state like China, so perhaps the sycophantic entourage of journalists that will be accompanying Hipkins can get some insight in that department.
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