Barry Soper: Deals with China won't do us much harm

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English during their press conference the bi-lateral talks at Premier House in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell

New Zealand may be a blip on the radar screen at the bottom of the Pacific screen but our size and our isolation is becoming less of a hindrance.

That's evident by the current visit of the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his delegation of 200 business king hitters. And in a total departure for a leading Chinese politician, Premier Li wrote us an open letter, telling us he's long been drawn to this country for its diverse culture, vibrant economy and natural beauty.

He goes on to list a number of firsts for New Zealand, like the free trade agreement with the People's Republic that was gifted to John Key on coming to office which has seen two way trade tripling to twenty three billion bucks, and is expected to add another seven billion in three years time.

It's put New Zealand on the Chinese radar with more than 400 thousand of them visiting this country each year spending $1.7billion which will grow even further with another ten flights a week to be added to the 49 currently playing the tourist trade.

The Premier, in a veiled dig at Donald Trump, said globalisation will move forward despite its setbacks, adding one should not stop eating for fear of being choked.

Yeah well choking on those words will be former American Vice President Joe Biden who, when he was here last July, also talked about our close bond. At his opening cocktail function he told his audience he'd met many times with leaders of China and said he'd "stated very forthrightly we are a Pacific power, we are going nowhere. We mean what we say when we say we are rebalancing the Pacific."

Biden preached open commerce, concluding "it's no longer what America can do for New Zealand, it's what we can do with New Zealand" that animates the White House.

With the White House now resembling something out of George Orwell's Animal Farm, this country would now appear to be of little consequence and it's being left to China to do that rebalancing act, as it has been doing around the region.

The bull in the China shop Winston Peters is complaining about secret deals being done behind closed doors, snorting at the Free Trade Agreement saying that less than a decade on we're renegotiating it from a point of total weakness.

But it was always scheduled for renegotiation and the deals signed off over the past 24 hours, like increasing those tourist flights and more importantly finally exporting chilled meat to China, rather than frozen carcasses, won't do us much harm.