China free trade deal 'not worth the risk' (+ photos)

The Chinese free trade deal jeopardises New Zealand's manufacturing sector, foreign minister Winston Peters said today. Photo / Mark Mitchell / Reuters

New Zealand First will vote against the China free trade agreement (FTA) and leader Winston Peters will speak against it overseas in his role as Foreign Affairs Minister.

The position, outlined today by Mr Peters, creates the unusual situation of having a Foreign Affairs Minister at loggerheads with the Government over what most people view as a key part of foreign policy.

However NZ First's opposition is not enough to endanger legislation ratifying the deal, which has the backing of National, ACT, United Future and the Progressive Party.

Outlining his reasoning, Mr Peters said the deal did not contain enough concessions on the Chinese side to make it worthwhile.

In the past few days Prime Minister Helen Clark has repeatedly stressed the FTA's wider strategic value and its importance to New Zealand's national interests.

But Mr Peters disagreed with the suggestion that the trade deal was a key piece of foreign policy.

He viewed it as trade policy, which he believed could be separated from his ministerial role.

However if he was asked, while travelling overseas as Foreign Affairs Minister, for his opinion he would not refrain from bagging the deal.

"If I'm asked I will tell the truth that I would have hoped we could have done much better," he told reporters.

"Obviously in that circumstance I'd be speaking as Foreign Minister and I will tell them the circumstances behind which we went into trade negotiations."

Helen Clark today said NZ First's position came as no surprise and she was "totally relaxed" about it.

She had been told yesterday of Mr Peters' planned statement today.

She said the situation was part and parcel of MMP politics.

"Probably most western outside the the Anglo-American countries have coalition governments," she told reporters in Beijing.

" Confidence and supply based agreements survive because people accept a degree of diversity.

"I've run minority governments for eight and a half years, always accepting diversity. In the case of New Zealand First it is not in a formal coalition with us.