US v China

A comment in the about our relative with China and the US got me curious, so downloaded the export data from Stats NZ. is purely how much we export to each country. The years are June years.

  • In 1990 we exported 12 times as much to the US than China – $1.9b v $0.16b
  • In 2000 we exported 5 times as much to the US than China – $3.7b v $0.77b
  • In 2008 we exported twice as much to the US than China – $$4.0b v $2.1b
  • In 2011 we exported 7/10ths as much to the US than – $3.9b v $5.6b
  • From 2000 to 2011 the level of exports to the US has increased only 5% (and these are nominal dollars)
  • From 2000 to 2011 the level of exports to China have increased 635%
  • Since the FTA was signed in 2008, exports to China have increased a massive 170% in just three years
  • In actual dollar terms, that is $3.6b more exports to China in 2011 than 2008
  • Comparing three year periods, 2009-11 saw $13.1b of exports compared to $5.7b the previous three years

I suggest people ask candidates of parties that opposed the NZ-China Free Trade Agreement, why? The Minister in the last Government campaigned against it. The Greens voted against it.

I regard the China/FTA as the best achievement of the 5th Labour Government, and a probably the best legacy from both Clark and Goff should be very proud of making it happen. If we had not had that extra $13b of exports in the last three years, we'd be a lot worse off.

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