British High Commissioner Laura Clarke says the New Zealand-UK relationship needs to move forward, not backwards. Photo / Mark Tantrum
British High Commissioner Laura Clarke says the New Zealand-UK relationship needs to move forward, not backwards. Photo / Mark Tantrum
New Zealand may be getting plenty of attention and better market access from the United Kingdom in the wake of Brexit, but it shouldn't be expecting a return to the relationship of decades past, Britain's top diplomat in Wellington says.
With the UK's departure from the European Union becoming officialon Saturday (NZT), its trade negotiators now have a year to put together new deals.
New Zealand has long been touted as being at the front of the queue for an agreement - alongside Australia and the United States - and formal talks are expected to be launched in coming months. Preparations have been going on since 2016.
"We would be hoping to formally launch negotiations as soon as we can this year. We can't yet confirm when that's going be, but that's definitely under discussion," Clarke says.
She describes an ambition for a "gold-standard" deal covering not just a wide range of goods, but services, the technology sector and climate change issues.
It could also mean better access to Britain for New Zealand's agricultural sector than it currently receives from the historically protectionist EU.
"I don't yet know the absolute detail of how far we will go in terms of tariff liberalisation, but my strong expectation is that we would be able to go further."
She sees New Zealand as a potential test case for Britain's other deals as well as a "helpful stepping stone" for the UK getting into the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade agreement, signed by 11 nations in 2018.
British Commissioner Laura Clarke (right) makes a Statement of Regret to Gisborne-based iwi last year. Photo / Liam Clayton
Britain and New Zealand have also been cosying up in the Pacific, as they both make a diplomatic push in the region.
The UK is opening three new Pacific posts (increasing the total to six) and will be sharing office space in Tonga and Vanuatu with New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Clarke argues Kiwis will also be winners from Britain taking control of its immigration policies and moving to a "geographically agnostic skill-based immigration system", saying skilled workers will be more in demand than ever.
"I am optimistic. I see no downsides for New Zealand."
But she stops short of saying Kiwis can expect any further special treatment because of historic ties, praising current special provisions, such as the ancestry and youth mobility visas.
"There will be similar questions being asked from the UK perspective," she says.
So will Britain and New Zealand's relationship be moving back to something like before 1973, the year the UK joined the European Economic Community, fundamentally changing New Zealand's trade relationship with the "mother country"?
"You can never go back. We wouldn't want to go back. We are where we are. The Britain of 2020 is very different to the Britain of 1973 and I would suggest New Zealand is as well," Clarke says.
"We're not looking backwards. We're looking forward."
But she argues the rekindling already began years ago.
"There was definitely a time when the UK, New Zealand, Australia were kind of old friends who slightly took each other for granted," she says.
"I think that's been changing for a while and I think that change predates the Brexit referendum, but it's accentuated by it."
And how does Clarke, who voted against Brexit, feel about it now?
"We all had our own vote. My feeling now is that we've got clarity. … We're leaving, the new chapter begins and there is opportunity."
