NZ, Japan a step closer to trade deal
NZPA | Wednesday, 14 May 2008
NZ, Japan a step closer to trade deal
New Zealand and Japan have taken a first step towards free trade negotiations, agreeing today to a study on the benefits of a closer economic partnership.
Speaking after meeting Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Prime Minister Helen Clark described the agreement as a "significant breakthrough" that could eventually pave the way for a deal.
If a "closer economic partnership agreement" - a term used by Japan to describe its trade deals - was signed up, it would provide "megabenefits" for New Zealand exporters, she said.
New Zealand has been trying to convince its third biggest export market to undertake such a study for some time, but Japan which retains a raft of agriculture subsidies, tariffs and import quotas has previously resisted the idea.
Japan is currently negotiating a trade deal with Australia, raising fears New Zealand exporters could be undercut in the lucrative Japanese market by their trans-Tasman competitors.
Miss Clark said with global shortages in some food categories and a general rise in prices, closer trade relations were one way for Japan, which imports over 60 per cent of its food, to secure a supply of high quality products - something the country’s government appeared to recognise.
Miss Clark said Japan remained the world’s second largest economy - taking almost twice as many New Zealand exports as China - and a deal would provide massive benefits.
"No one is saying the road forward is quick and simple. It isn’t, but we’ve never been able to get that started before. In trade policy terms it very exciting."
Miss Clark also raised the whaling issue with Mr Fukuda, stating New Zealand’s opposition to Japan’s scientific whaling programme in the Southern Ocean.
She also had a longer and more detailed discussion on the issue with Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura - the equivalent of New Zealand’s deputy prime minister - expressing opposition to both the killing of whales and the sale and consumption of their meat.
Mr Machimura said the Japanese government would be bringing together all the ministers with some input into whaling ahead of next month’s International Whaling Commission meeting in Chile to assess its position.
The trip is Miss Clark’s first state visit to Japan in three years and is likely to be her last foreign trip ahead of this year’s election.
Tomorrow Miss Clark will give a keynote speech to the inaugural Japan-New Zealand Partnership Forum - a high-level business event aimed at refocusing Japanese attention on New Zealand - before heading to Korea where she will hold talks with president Lee Myung-Bak on the issue of free trade negotiations following a study which showed strong potential benefits for both countries.
