PM's Piece: Making the most of an opportunity

By Jenny Shipley

It is not often that we get the opportunity to host a visit by the President of the United States - it's been 33 years since the last one, in fact - so President Clinton's visit is a very important opportunity for New Zealand.

This will be Mr Clinton's first visit to New Zealand, so our top priority will be to ensure that he leaves with a positive impression. We are working hard to ensure that he has an interesting and successful programme which enables him to see some of the best scenery we have to offer.

When you play host to the President of the United States you are on show to the whole world through the international news media that travel with him, so it is important that we make the most of the opportunities that presents. Beyond that, we will want to sit down and discuss with him a range of bilateral and international issues of importance to us both. It will be an occasion to let him appreciate how we view key issues of mutual interest.

Top of the agenda will be the furthering of global trade liberalisation. As well as reviewing the outcomes from the Apec leaders' meeting in Auckland, we will be looking ahead to the forthcoming round of the World Trade Organisation's multilateral trade negotiations, which begin in Seattle in November.

New Zealand and the United States are both firmly committed to freeing up global trade and it is one of the areas in which we work most closely together. We have supported each other strongly within Apec, the WTO - where the United States recently played a major role in backing Mike Moore's successful bid to become the next director-general - and the Cairns Group of agricultural nations.

We will be talking about shared political and security concerns in places such as North Korea and East Timor and I will want to engage the President on issues closer to home such as Bougainville. Other matters also have an impact on both our countries, such as the environment and Antarctic cooperation. I am pleased Mr Clinton has chosen to make a major speech on the environment at the Antarctic Centre in Christchurch.

New Zealand and the United States have much in common and much to share. We have a long-standing partnership, rich in history and distinguished by years of shared endeavour. We share common values and have often stood side-by-side, including in times of war.

In so many areas there is evidence of US-NZ cooperation: Antarctica, the environment, science and research, infrastructure reform, trade liberalisation, international peacekeeping, good governance, election monitoring and human rights. And underpinning this formal cooperation are a myriad of people-to-people links.

Our bilateral relationship, in terms of both trade and defence, is very important to New Zealand. The level of access extended to my entourage when I visited Washington in January proved just how strong the links are between us. We continue to make good progress in developing all strands of the relationship and, while we agree there is unfinished business in the defence relationship, there is a willingness on both sides to work around our differences.

There are occasional hiccups in even the strongest of relationships and I will again be registering with Mr Clinton the disappointment felt by New Zealanders at his decision to impose tariffs on lamb imports. I will be explaining to him why New Zealand is now taking action in the WTO over those tariffs.

The United States is not only the largest economy in the world, it is firmly established as one of our largest trading partners, second only to Australia, with two-way trade worth more that $7 billion in 1998. The United States is a growing market, too, last year taking $2.79 billion in exports such as beef, casein, timber, lamb, seafood and dairy and horticultural products. Trade is also strongly supported in other areas, with the United States being our second-largest source of investment (more than $14 billion since 1990), and tourists.

Mr Clinton's visit is a great opportunity to build on what is already a very strong relationship between our two countries, and to ensure he returns home with very positive feelings about our country and our people