Why do we appear to be avoiding China?
Relationships matter, especially to the Chinese. It doesn't hurt to visit your friends.
Although long-signalled, the trade wins that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is ticking off in Europe should be celebrated for the material improvements those freetrade agreements would bring to our exporters.
But six months to the day since Winston Peters set her on a path to being prime minister, New Zealand’s approach to trade and our relationships internationally is not without risk.
All in all, things are better than freetrade zealots might have expected only a few months ago.
In late 2017, not only were there fears the TPP would collapse, the new Government contained so many anti-TPP protesters it seemed possible a deal might be done without us.
In the end, the general consensus that has existed for decades – that free trade makes us better off – prevailed.
While Labour brought with it a more embracing approach to counter public concerns about trade deals, by and large the intent is the same.
But even pushing aside the headache that has been a coalition promise to progress a free-trade deal with Russia – which Ardern should formally abandon – other markets are simply not getting the attention they deserve.
Despite effectively naming China as one of our best friends in a major foreign policy speech, none of Ardern’s huge ministry has found the time to visit Beijing.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters, whose racy comments on the Chinese have been well documented, has signalled a trip is imminent. But so far the most senior figure to visit China since the election is a bureaucrat – Mfat chief executive Brook Barrington.
Trade Minister David Parker, whose