NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

<i>Dialogue:</i> The leftward lean towards free trade

1 Aug, 2000 07:52 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Is free trade dead? Not yet. A new World Trade Organisation trade liberalisation round may be (temporarily?) stalled. But bilateral and regional initiatives abound - and that's a bother for us.

New Zealand is small and distant. It scarcely registers on foreign capitals' radars. Why should Korea, still less the United
States, bother with us if they can talk turkey with Japan?

This is no bother to the Greens' or the Alliance's rank-and-file who don't want a bar of free trade at any level. The Greens idealise small and local. They recently published a detailed case against the free trade agreement with Singapore, now only a whisker away from signing.

The Alliance remains wary. Senior Labour ministers say the agreement has been exhaustively and constructively discussed in the cabinet, but Jim Anderton says the Alliance will not define its position until it has the final agreement in front of it.

In any case, Labour ministers are confident of getting endorsement. They see it as confronting the awful fact of our isolation and inconsequentiality.

They did freeze tariffs for five years in May. But only 5 per cent of our imports by value carry any tariffs and the sensitive industries have all but adjusted to zero tariff anyway.

Few manufacturers, having made the transition to the open economy, want to go back to protection. They look now for low-level facilitative assistance and competitive and stable economic policy settings.

The deep reasons for the revived business anger at the Employment Relations Bill is fear that it might diminish our fragile competitiveness in an unforgiving trading world.

The realistic, as distinct from idealistic, option is more trade liberalisation. Only that way can New Zealand business get better access to wider markets and create jobs. That is the argument this Government of mostly non-free-traders has bought.

Helen Clark is no right-wing acolyte, as the Employment Relations Bill shows. But she is a realist on trade.

The Singapore free trade agreement has been the catalyst. It was well under way when the Government took office. A decision had to be made to kill it or keep it going. Ministers chose to keep it going.

And that led to bigger issues. The Singapore agreement is a state-of-the-art deal, encompassing - besides goods trade, which will be little affected - services (phased in over 10 years and our main potential gain), investment, technical trade barriers and recognition of professional qualifications. But its greater importance is as a strategic manoeuvre.

Its architects in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, mainly Tim Groser, now head of the Asia 2000 Foundation, saw in the agreement - and sold the idea to Singapore - a means of nudging Australia and the 10 countries of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) towards a regional hookup. Singapore is frustrated at slow progress by its Asean neighbours in the Asean free trade area (Afta).

And they got movement. At the annual dialogue last September between Afta countries and Australia and New Zealand, a taskforce was set up to study the feasibility of an Afta-CER free trade arrangement. Sir William Birch is New Zealand's member and it is headed by Cesar Virata, a former Philippines Prime Minister.

The taskforce meets this week to tick off a draft report proposing to ministers a phased agreement: Australia and New Zealand to dismantle tariffs by 2005, the "core" (richer) Asean nations by 2010 and the others by 2015 or 2018.

This is more ambitious than the Apec timetable of zero tariff for the likes of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand by 2010 and the rest by 2020. And the Apec process is voluntary. An Afta-CER deal would be contractual.

The potential benefits for New Zealand have been calculated at $7 billion.

Pie in the sky? Australia has shifted its ground dramatically in the past 12 months and now favours bilateral and regional deals. Even left-wing Labor MPs have argued against tariff rises.

Singapore's protectionist Asean mates (Thailand excepted) are a different matter. But Singapore's dalliance with New Zealand and, recently, musing about a similar deal with Australia, has rattled the cage. Who knows what might come out.

Colin.James@synapsis.co.nz

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

Politics

Te Pāti Māori selects former broadcaster for Tāmaki Makaurau byelection

10 Jul 08:58 AM
New Zealand

Man sentenced for taking boy to secluded spot and photographing him without togs on

10 Jul 08:00 AM
New Zealand

State of emergency declared for Tasman region, severe weather warnings across NZ

10 Jul 07:04 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Te Pāti Māori selects former broadcaster for Tāmaki Makaurau byelection

Te Pāti Māori selects former broadcaster for Tāmaki Makaurau byelection

10 Jul 08:58 AM

Move comes after MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp died last month.

Man sentenced for taking boy to secluded spot and photographing him without togs on

Man sentenced for taking boy to secluded spot and photographing him without togs on

10 Jul 08:00 AM
State of emergency declared for Tasman region, severe weather warnings across NZ

State of emergency declared for Tasman region, severe weather warnings across NZ

10 Jul 07:04 AM
‘Lock all your doors’: Neighbours recount gunman on loose after Hamilton homicide

‘Lock all your doors’: Neighbours recount gunman on loose after Hamilton homicide

10 Jul 07:00 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP