Best of friends

While most people were focused on the shenanigans in the Trump Administration, this week the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, came calling on New Zealand. Comments from the Chinese Foreign Ministry were gushing by their standards. They noted 2017 was the 45th anniversary of China-New Zealand diplomatic relations and said “bilateral relations have achieved leapfrog development and become a model of peaceful coexistence between countries of different social systems and territorial sizes”. China welcomed New Zealand to actively participate in the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” — China’s trade and development strategy — and said it was “willing to enhance co-operation in science, technology, and innovation between both sides, expand mutually beneficial co-operation in agriculture, animal husbandry, biopharmaceutical and other areas and elevate the level of judicial and law enforcement cooperation.” Pointedly, they asked for “more convenience for Chinese nationals travelling to New Zealand”, but offered to “take concrete actions and initiate negotiations on the upgrade of bilateral free trade agreement.” Meanwhile, hopes of a trade deal with Britain took a bit of blow, as British sheep farmers campaign hard against any easier access for NZ meat. The Brits say a possible 43 per cent WTO tariff on British sheep meat exports to the EU, plus increased market access for New Zealand, would be potentially fatal for them. Britain’s International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is set to come here in the northern hemisphere summer, to talk about such issues and how to balance British farmers’ needs with those of consumers.