New Zealand and China will soon hold a series of high-level meetings and work to promote free trade, the countries’ governments said yesterday, amidst growing concerns about US trade protectionism.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully yesterday met in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, a day after Wang met with New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English.
“We were setting the scene for a range of high-level meetings and engagements,” McCully told reporters in a telephone interview yesterday.
He declined to say which leaders from the two countries were meeting or when they would meet.
However, he said the meetings would provide opportunities for investing in New Zealand.
“Other regions in the world in particular are starting to ask questions about the benefits of globalization and free trade,” McCully said.
“We are countries that have led the way in the [free-trade] process and need to show leadership again in demonstrating ... the benefits of continuing down this path,” he added.
The pair discussed the upgrade of the nations’ bilateral free-trade agreement, China’s possible involvement in what remains of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations and New Zealand’s role in China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
International focus has centered on China’s role as a steadying force in global affairs amid a turbulent start by new US President Donald Trump, whose first weeks in office have been marked by media feuds and protests.
McCully said he told Wang that he would like to see China in the TPP and they agreed this should be discussed further.
New Zealand and Australia have said that they hope to salvage the TPP by encouraging China and other Asian countries to join the trade pact after Trump kept an election pledge to abandon the accord.
Wang invited New Zealand to attend China’s “One Belt, One Road” summit in May and McCully said a New Zealand government minister, yet to be announced, would attend.
The two had agreed New Zealand should ensure the government’s 30-year infrastructure plan matched China’s “One Belt, One Road” strategy where possible.
New Zealand was the first Western country to sign a free-trade agreement with China in 2008. China is now New Zealand’s largest goods export partner, with the nation’s exports to China totaling NZ$12.2 billion (US$8.8 billion) in the year to June last year.
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