Winston Peters disparages Christopher Luxon’s tariff talks with world leaders: ‘Call me next time’

Foreign Minister Winston Peters, right, says Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not consult him before trade phone calls with world leaders. Photo / Samuel Rillstone, RNZ

By Lillian Hanly of RNZ

Winston Peters has chastised the Prime Minister for his spree of phone calls with world leaders about the US trade war, and advised politicians to “tone down”.

The foreign minister told RNZ Christopher Luxon had not consulted with him before the calls, adding: “I hope that he’ll get my message and he’ll call me next time.”

Luxon made a speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce on Thursday morning and proposed the European Commission work more closely with countries signed up to the Trans-Pacific trade pact - known as the CPTPP - to champion the rules-based trade order and provide some stability and certainty.

It came after the United States retaliated against China by hiking tariffs to 125%, while placing a 90-day pause on retaliatory tariffs for other countries. The US has since upped the China tariff to 145%.

Luxon followed his Wellington speech with a series of phone calls that night with Indo-Pacific leaders and the European Union to gauge how they are interpreting the tit-for-tat trade war and the implications it might have for their economies.

Speaking from Tonga on Friday, Peters offered some advice to the Prime Minister.

“Markets lose their nerve. Share market speculators lose their nerve. Politicians should not lose their nerve, and that’s my advice,” he told RNZ.

“There’s no need to react at this point in time. Let’s first find out what we’re dealing with, let the dust settle in.

“My advocacy from the day this matter came up with the Trump tariffs - our job is to be ultra careful, ultra forward thinking in the interest of, guess what, the New Zealand economy, that’s what matters, not our egos,” he said.

“So my advice to politicians is tone down, wait ‘til you see and know what’s going on.”

Asked if he had spoken with the Prime Minister’s Office regarding the matter, Peters said: “No, he didn’t check it out when he made that speech and made those phone calls.”

“So I hope that he’ll get my message and he’ll call me next time.”

Foreign Minister Winston Peters advises politicians to play the waiting game amid Donald Trump's tariff turmoil. Photo / Samuel Rillstone, RNZ

‘Premature’ calls - Winston Peters

On Thursday afternoon, Peters was asked about the developing tariff hikes, to which he said it was “what we expected, actually”.

“Everybody was overreacting, everybody was talking too fast, everybody should have kept their counsel, kept their patience, and it’s starting to unfold far less serious than people thought.”

Asked about Luxon’s idea to get CPTPP countries together with Europe and building a “trading bloc”, Peters said it was “all very premature”.

“We’re trying to sort out this other thing with America and China’s trade war, and we’re rushing off with solutions - let’s find out what happened there first.”

He would not comment when asked if he was consulted by the Prime Minister before the speech.

Peters was asked again later if Luxon had discussed the idea of getting those countries together “to formulate some sort of joint response to the US action” with him, to which Peters replied “no”.

When asked if he would expect to have that discussed given he is Foreign Minister, Peters said he’d taken the stance that “experience matters”.

“In this case, wait until we see what emerges with the tariff war that’s going on.”

He said it will come to a resolution, “much quicker than people think”.

“So let’s not panic here.”

When asked what was wrong with the idea of engaging with other leaders regarding the CPTPP, Peters asked “what would you talk about?”

“What’s the tariff regime going to be in the end? Do we know what that’s going to be? No. If we don’t know what that’s going to be, what would you actually talk about? Think about it.”

When asked if it was naivety by the Prime Minister, Peters suggested that question be put to Luxon.

Christopher Luxon reached out to several world leaders this week over trade concerns. Photo / Marika Khabazi, RNZ

Luxon dodges Peters’ ‘premature’ comments

On Friday, before Peters’ interview in Tonga, Luxon took questions from the media in Hamilton.

He was asked by RNZ what he made of Peters describing his calls with world leaders as “premature”.

Luxon disputed that characterisation and moved on.

“I gave a pretty broad-ranging speech yesterday on trade, which was appropriate given the week we’ve been experiencing.”

Luxon said he was doing three things “over the course of yesterday”.

Firstly, was to reach out to “key bilateral partners for New Zealand to say, what more could we be doing together in a world where we have a like-minded approach to trade?”

Secondly, he said, was to understand “how they’ve been interpreting the events of the last week, and what that means for them and their economies”.

Thirdly, “making the case that we should be reaffirming the principles of free trade together”, whether that was in an Asean or CPTPP bloc.