John Key on NZ-US FTA

27 March 2007. John responds to questions about the importance of a free trade agreement with the US, something the Labour-led Government has been unable to progress in any meaningful way. He discusses the decisive role National has played in advancing the FTA agenda by convincing US leaders that New Zealand's anti-nuke position is an immutable part of the national identity, putting paid to the notion that this development is somehow the product of Labour diplomacy.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• johnkey
• nationalparty
• newzealand
• freetrade
• fta

[SugarTomAppleRoger]

Good one. Always suggest it. The US farm lobby won;t allow it anyway. That way both the US and NZ have the best of both worlds. They can remain friends, but not get involved with business. The two don't mix.

[scotty686]

national, just as the right wingers do in england where im from, would reduce taxes on the rich, let the poor suffer, complain about the rise in crime caused by this, and end up increasing jail sentences to try fix it. Its a boring pattern repeated all over the world by every country with a conservative/republican/tory/n­ational government. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

[georgewtwat]

come on john - As much as i loathe helen clarke they have been trying to knock this agrrement out for 6 years. Its not something that happens in a 5 minute meeting.

[ewelmcc]

John tell me this if and i say IF, national was to win the next election , what would national do for the working class, would they overturn the employment act, would national capitalise on cheap labour from china(labour opened that door ) , would the big corporates cream us once again ??? at the expense of the working class, most importantly would National listen to the owners of NZ, us the people ? would we see more referendum , rather than dictatorship as we have now

[cheetah100]

There is a very real danger that a FTA will require similar legislation to be enacted; that we will see extended copyright and a patent system that is even more tilted towards big overseas monopolists than it is now. We could very well do better signing a FTA with China.

[CuttingFilm]

Hi John, does having a FTA with the US really benifit our country? Looking at what's happening in Australia, would it not just make more of our stragic assets more vulnerable to US corporate take-overs?

I mean it's great to sell our goods abroad, but if 'our' companies producing the goods are sold in the process were not really making any headway are we? Some would argue we we're going backwards, I'd probably agree.