US Trade Deal Prospect Raises Cheers
September 25th, 2008
The US decision to start free trade negotiations with NZ, Singapore, Chile and Brunei gave the Govt a big boost this week and the business sector cheered the news. Labour hopes it means more votes as well as a potential $1bn for the economy. Helen Clark says a deal with the four countries, known as the P4, could be just as good as a bilateral FTA with the US and Business NZ CEO Phil O’Reilly described the breakthrough as “some of the best news exporters could be hoping for.”
The four countries signed the P4 agreement in 2005, aiming to remove all tariffs within a decade, and they’ve been working hard to get the US on board. Clark says she thinks negotiations could move quickly, faster than those which took three years to seal the China FTA. Fonterra sees the potential for new export opportunities and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab says her country’s dairy industry, which has been wary of competition in the past, is now more open to it. But she also says some tricky issues will have to be talked through. Amid the euphoria, the CTU was a lonely worried voice. Its economist Peter Conway said an FTA with the US carried risks and could lead to aggressive investment invasions.
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“Other major countries including Japan will have to look seriously at joining. It is the start of the bottom-up process to get a trade agreement across the Asia Pacific, the most important trading bloc in the world.”
Phil Goff, Trade Minister
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Duncan Cotterill