Barry Soper: The new NZ-US relationship - devil will be in the detail

By Barry Soper

Newstalk ZB's senior political correspondent·NZ Herald·

24 Sep, 2019 06:00 PM3 mins to read

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was probably diplomatically wise not to raise global warming with Donald Trump.

Opinion by Barry Soper

Barry Soper is Newstalk ZB's senior political correspondent

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COMMENT: It was a day of pressing the famous flesh for Jacinda Ardern in the Big Apple with her stand-in back home Winston Peters declaring it "Mega Monday" - a triumph for her and reckons we should be dancing in the streets.

As always Peters had the inside oil, confiding in us that US President Donald Trump turned to his officials during his pull-aside with Ardern on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly telling them to get on with a free trade agreement with this country.

Believe that when you see it, and if you do see it, Peters' enthusiasm would certainly be warranted.

Trump has every reason to be fond of this country, the trade balance is in America's favour and that's the way he likes it. But there was no offer in the interim (nor it seems any request from Ardern) to scrap the hefty tariffs he imposed on our steel and aluminium exports.

Peters' praise of Ardern wasn't of course shared by Simon Bridges with the Nats' leader telling us she was a cop out. She didn't raise the issues she's been waxing on about, the metal tariffs being just one of them.

What about bending Trump's ear, he intoned, on the nuclear-free moment of her generation, climate change, or her pet project, the Christchurch Call to clean up the internet?

She was probably diplomatically wise not to raise global warming, which would probably have made Trump hot under the collar given his first act as President was to pull out of the Paris Accord.

But given Trump presides over the host country to all the internet giants, that should have been on the agenda. Without the United States on board, it does weaken the resolve.

And even with another 31 countries lending support to it, which of course any sensible country should do, it's all about resolve rather than regulation. Ardern, when she met with the 2IC at Facebook billionaire Sheryl Sandberg made it easy for her, responding to the media in her presence that it'd be nigh on impossible to regulate to hold platforms to account.

In an industry where the balance sheet bottom line is eye watering, dictating decisions, there's little wonder why Sandberg and Ardern warmly embraced while the PM had to make do with a Trump thumbs up.

Still several hours after the Ardern meeting, Trump used his other digits on his cellphone to retweet a NZ Herald story quoting her telling us "President Trump views New Zealand very warmly, views the relationship very warmly and holds New Zealand in very high regard."