And another FTA – Hong Kong
Vernon Small reports on the conclusion of a free trade agreement with Hong Kong. So it got me thinking what are the countries we have an FTA wth, or are negotiating. The answers are:
- Australia, since 1983
- Singapore since 2001
- Thailand since 2005
- Trans-Pacific (Brunei/Chile/Singapore) since 2005
- China since 2008
- ASEAN (Brunei/Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam)
- Malaysia
- Gulf Co-operation Council (Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar)
- Hong Kong
- Korea
Now who are our biggest trading partners:
- Australia $18.7b – in force
- USA $9.0b – zip
- China $8.9b – in force
- Japan $7.6b – some momentum
- Singapore – $3.1b – in force
- Germany – $3.0b – zip
- Malaysia $2.9b – finalised
- UK $2.8b – zip
- Korea $2.7b – under negotiation
Also the total value of trade with ASEAN is $12.2b and GCC $4.3b.
So while progress on Doha remains stalled, we’re doing pretty well. The big gaps are USA, Japan and the EU. The EU are hopeless. Japan is showing some signs of life and in a very welcome move, President Obama a few minutes ago said the United States would seek to join the Trans-Pac agreement.
I’m delighted his protectionist election rhetoric, may have been just that – rhetoric. I started writing this blog post unaware of Obama’s announcement – how is that for good timing!
November 14th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Professor Jane Kelsey of Auckland University Law Department who is an ‘expert’ in economics despite never passing Econ 100 or Econ 101 and who’s sole entitlement to claiming to be an authority in Economics is a rubbish book she published some time ago called ‘Economic Fundamentalism’ which argued that the answer to a bankrupt nation is to increase taxes on the filthy rich or borrow more, will be outraged that the peasants have a right to trade without her ilk getting a clip of the ticket.
Goddamn bitch.
(PS She is a ‘proud’ lesbian)
[DPF: 20 demerits for the bitch comment. A pity as the rest of your comment above was very good. And personally did not know or care about her sexual orientation - it is her economics that are the issue]
November 14th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
“(PS She is a ‘proud’ lesbian)”
How can that be? Does she sport an erect strap on Swiftman?
November 14th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
And another possibly…
November 14th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I doubt we will ever have free trade with the US. NZ will be excluded.
If I were the US, I would not trade with NZ because of the anti nuclear stance.
How can you have an open free trade deal with a country who is sticking their fingers in your eyes?
November 14th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Sorry, I just don’t get the ‘buzz’ about a FTA with Hong Kong. How much trade, denied today, will be suddenly enabled by this agreement?
November 14th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Doubt it, Delirium. Guy’s too much of a protectionist. This is just niceties. Good of the Huruld to keep up the delusion though.
November 14th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Mea culpa. I am guilty and I will take my punishment like a man.
Truly sorry David, I got carried away.
November 14th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Jolly good stuff. A quick jab of the 20 demerit (cm) strapon up the proverbial makes you properly humble Swiftman and don’t be such a naughty boy again!
November 14th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
… and how would the ‘Demerit Virgin’ have any idea that a 20 demerit strapon even exists?
Methinks he fibbeth, and in fact has personal, first hand experience of said device.
November 14th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I shall leave the comparison of the relative pleasures of the pseudo/real 20cm demerit strapon’s to those of the faith who have very likely experienced them in real time KK.
November 14th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
There are also stalled negotiations for an agreement with Indonesia separately to ASEAN. New Zealand’s offers were seen as tokenistic by Indonesian negotiators.
November 14th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Indonesia being NZ’s 7th largest export destination.
November 14th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Agree that FTAs are important for NZ, given we are such a tiny trading nation, and regret Clark and the lefties probably are the reason we haven’t already got one with potentially the biggest market of all, USA.
However, can’t see any benefits from an FTA with Hong Kong, given it’s a free port, with no tariffs.
Also I query statement in Kiwiblog a few weeks back about quick benefits from the NZ-China FTA. The upsurge in NZ exports to China was probably influenced much more by consumer demand for foreign dairy products after the Sanlu scandal than by the China-NZ FTA. How paradoxical given Fonterra’s link with Sanlu.
And here’s a problem the China FTA won’t help with. Russia, the biggest forest products supplier to China, is moving to ban log exports. Customers will have to buy sawn timber etc. In NZ we have social havoc in the North Island timber towns with mills closing because of world recession and the high kiwi dollar. What can be done to gain some social benefit from processed wood products? Freight savings on processed product should counter higher NZ wages.
A second question on the China FTA. China holds its currency low through the level it sets the yuan-USD exchange rate. Can you have a true FTA when one of the parties has a floating currency and the other sets its exchange rate?
November 15th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Jack, how about you read the Dom Post article?
/quote
“It’s largely based on the services sector … and will be a welcome addition for New Zealand companies looking to grow and expand into the services sector in Hong Kong,” Mr Key said.
It would particularly benefit computer firms like Datacom and the hi-tech and education sectors.
/unquote
November 15th, 2009 at 10:20 am
If a FTA with the US doesn’t include dairy and beef, it will be a waste of time for NZ. How much do you want to bet, there will be ‘special clauses’ for these products.
Might want to ask Australian sugar growers about the ‘special exemptions’ to support US armers than can be added.
November 15th, 2009 at 11:03 am
And we’d likely get stiffed with some very US-centric copyright and DRM clauses.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
FWIW: Agriculture, a sticking point in the past, is now included.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10609411
November 15th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Presumably that only means agriculture is included for discussion. I doubt the powerful US farming lobby will let NZ’s low-cost farmers and dairy farmers have open access to their markets.
Ironically Eric Watson (Hanover Finance) is investing big in a US-based version of NZ pastoral dairy farming. Sounds a little too much like the troubled NZ Farming Systems Uruguay. His idea is that US dairy farmers have all got it wrong and could make more money doing it the NZ way.
November 15th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
yeah heard about that. one wonders why they weren’t just doing it that way in the first place – corn subsidies the culprit perhaps?
November 15th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Yeah it could be a case of that is just the way dairy farming has evolved in the US. Corn certainly underpins US farming. However NZ Farming Systems Uruguay is a cautionary tale for anyone who goes overseas and thinks “They’re doing this all wrong. Fools. I’ll show them the right way”.
Still, perhaps Eric Watson has a different criteria for what constitutes a successful business idea; plenty of OPM (Other Peoples Money), and get out quick with loads of cash while the hype is still flowing.
I’m always interested by how things are done differently the world over, but the locals assume their way is the best and most obvious. Just look at the way houses are sold in the UK. Madness.
November 15th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Re MaxXP at 8.52…. Small doesn’t spell out precisely the mechanisms the Hong Kong FTA will help NZ services access Hong Kong.
MFAT (link below) elaborates only:”…commitments are being sought in the areas of services, investment, and government procurement…”
If “Datacom and the hi-tech and education sectors” can’t score in Hong Kong now, they will after this deal? Yeah right.
An FTA with a free port which continues to be perhaps the most open slice of capitalism that ever existed, remains a bit of a hollow deal.
The MFAT link:
http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Trade-and-Economic-Relations/Trade-Agreements/Hong-Kong/index.php