A great idea if ... indeed
This was an unhappy turn of events for the Kiwi businessmen with plans in Mumbai, and no doubt the Bombay Stock exchange is bereft at the thought of missing out on a speech from our prime minister.
The Townsville media tracked down the aviationally inconvenienced John Key and hit him up about the possibility of direct flights to Auckland.
Touchingly, they detected substantive support in his comments that this would be a ‘‘great idea if they can get it to happen’’.
We can’t vouch for how Australian politics works – who can? – but over here when a PM says something like that what everyone hears is that the ‘‘if’’ effectively means nothing more than it’s a great idea only if it turns out, in the safety of hindsight, to have been one.
And the ‘‘they’’ means that as far as the PM’s concerned, whether or not it happens has nothing much to do with him in any case. None of which means Key is about to get meddlesomely pro-active.
You have to suspect that Indian PM Narendra Modi will have similarly wan encouragements when Key meets him to discuss a free trade agreement.
India is a huge potential market, but also hugely protectionist. As they say, the world’s biggest dairy market is one where local farmers can get by with a herd of five cows.
Hopes aired during a 2011 visit that overall trade growth would rise to $2 billion have been sorely disappointed with exports running at $369 million annually.
Frankly, the enthusiasm for freer trade seems to be so muted in India that were Modi to attest that it was potentially a great idea, we’d be at risk of getting a tiny bit excitable ourselves.
But you never know, for sure. Any sort of substantial success in India will be all the more welcome for its out-of-the-blue status.
And there is perhaps some remedial work to be done making sure one welcome growth area, Indians coming here as students, works better.
That would mean addressing the harm done by unlicensed Indian agents, and the problem of students coming on study visas but really intent on working, and better control of some underperforming Kiwi institutions.