KEY POINTS:
Trade Minister Phil Goff is reassuring China there is nothing to fear from the removal of tariffs.
New Zealand opens the 10th round of talks in January aimed at becoming the first OECD country to have a free trade agreement (FTA) with China.
Mr Goff, who is in Shanghai as part of a New Zealand trade mission, says while there is goodwill on both sides, a deal has to be fair to both countries. He says New Zealand is starting by demanding top quality, but realises both sides have to see the benefits.
He says China's tariffs remain an issue and New Zealand wants them eliminated. However, he says New Zealand is also realistic and realises tariffs have to be phased out over time.
Mr Goff says China may feel threatened by New Zealand's highly efficient, competent dairy industry and fear it will damage efforts to build up their own dairy sector. But he says that will not happen. He says New Zealand will be working in partnership with China to grow a market that is already growing faster than production from both countries can fully meet.
He says China should be encouraged by the fact that as a result of decreasing its tariffs, it has managed to double its dairy production.
Mr Goff says the message has already gone out to New Zealand textile, clothing and footware industries over the past 15 years that increasingly they will have to compete on a global market and if a FTA is agreed on, the level of tariff protection will go.
He says his message to the Chinese is clear.
"New Zealand, with its finite limit to how much it can export out to one particular market, is not going threaten you but we can be very good partners."
"Let's develop this relationship, let's develop this partnership. We can work together for mutual benefit and it can be a win-win situation. I firmly believe that that's the case and we will continue to argue strongly for the case of dairy and the elimination of tariffs, albeit that they will be phased out over time."
- NEWSTALK ZB
