KEY POINTS:
The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang, is optimistic that a free trade agreement between New Zealand and Hong Kong can be concluded.
Talks on a closer economic partnership agreement were suspended five years ago, in part because of concerns from some manufacturing sectors that it would provide a back-door for duty-free access for Chinese goods into the New Zealand market.
But now a free trade agreement with China itself is in the offing.
On a post-Apec visit to Wellington yesterday, Tsang said he would be bringing the matter up in his talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark.
"I hope very much we can come to a deal. I think we have spent enough time going through the fine print and we should put pen to paper," he said.
The remaining issues were minor, he said, and as far as rules of origin were concerned the Hong Kong system was highly respected and able to differentiate Hong Kong products from those coming from other places, including mainland China.
Trade Minister Phil Goff said New Zealand was interested in continuing discussions towards a possible resumption of the negotiations. "The conclusion of our negotiations with China could find a way through some of the outstanding rules of origin issues that held the deal up last time," he said.
"By the time we have worked out how we are going to phase out tariffs with China we think that would remove that as a problem. But we also want an outcome of roughly the same quality as we negotiated with Singapore, Chile and Brunei."
Hong Kong's applied tariff rate is zero - an agreement would bind that.
"We would also want a quality outcome in services and investment," Goff said.
Hong Kong has nearly 7 million people with a per capita GDP of around US$30,000 ($43,500), or 10 per cent higher than New Zealand's. Trade between the two has been growing at around 8 per cent a year.
"I'm keen to remind the New Zealand business community how similar we are in our values," said Tsang.
Hong Kong was determined to be the pre-eminent financial centre in the east Asian time zone, he said. By some measures - like the amount raised in initial public offerings last year - it had already overtaken New York.
It is the gateway to a fast-growing hinterland. Provinces bordering the Pearl River, at whose mouth Hong Kong sits, have a population similar to the European Union.
The UN Panel on Climate Change forecasts sea levels in the Pearl River delta to rise by about half a metre by mid-century.
"We want to be sure climatic change does not disrupt our whole growth process," Tsang said.
Hong Kong would "do its part" in reducing carbon emissions, which per capita are about a third of the US.
LET'S TALK
* Hong Kong is keen to resume talks with New Zealand over a closer economic partnership, which were suspended in 2002.
* New Zealand is positively inclined to do that, says Trade Minister Phil Goff.
* But it would need to be a "high quality" agreement.
