By SIMON COLLINS
SINGAPORE - Foreign Minister Phil Goff is pushing for a free trade deal with Thailand.
Mr Goff - in Singapore to follow up the NZ-Singapore free trade agreement which took effect in January - welcomed reported comments by new Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai that Bangkok would look to bilateral trade agreements, possibly with New Zealand and Australia.
New Zealand is already seeking similar free trade deals with Hong Kong, Chile and the United States.
Singapore is negotiating free trade agreements with Australia, the United States and Japan.
Mr Surakiart, a former Finance Minister who is number two in Thailand's new pro-business Government, surprised Mr Goff with his comments in an interview in the Singapore Straits Times on Friday.
"It was out of the blue," Mr Goff said.
"The areas that New Zealand still needs safeguards for - for a transitional period - would be clothing, textiles and footwear.
"Other than that, we don't have tariffs, and Thai tariffs on our agriculture are all considerably higher than our tariffs on clothing, textiles and footwear.
"We have a hell of a lot to gain if we are able to conclude a trade agreement with them."
Mr Goff said New Zealand would still prefer a general reduction of world trade restrictions through the World Trade Organisation.
The group will make a second attempt at starting a new trade round in Qatar in November, two years after its last attempt ended in failure at Seattle.
In the meantime, the Government has had preliminary discussions with Hong Kong, and has started talks with Chile.
The major obstacle to a deal with Chile is seen to be opposition from the dairy industry there.
The Chilean Agriculture Minister and a dairying delegation will visit New Zealand in a fortnight to see NZ's grass-fed dairy sector.
New Zealand officials are also promoting a five-party "P5" deal with Australia, Chile, Singapore and the United States.
Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton is due to visit Washington next month to meet President George W. Bush's Trade Representative, Bob Zoellick.
Big gains tipped from Thai free trade
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