KEY POINTS:
Trade Minister Phil Goff emphasised yesterday that the free trade agreement with China is "a good deal for New Zealand".
He said the Government's new website, www.chinafta.govt.nz, had already attracted 31,000 hits, which indicated a strong level of interest.
Mr Goff headed to Hangzhou yesterday to lead a trade mission to promote the FTA.
"The signing of the free trade agreement has opened the door for New Zealand businesses to grow in China, our fourth-largest market, and gives them a head start on competitors. Now we have to capitalise on it.
"New Zealand is becoming a more familiar name in Hangzhou and the wider Zhejiang province, an area of 50 million people and containing China's largest concentration of private sector companies. The trade mission aims to take advantage of the huge publicity New Zealand has received in China over the past few days."
Mr Goff will hold talks with Zhejiang Province's senior official, party secretary Zhao Hongzhu, and meet some of Zhejiang's leading companies - including Hangzhou Wahaha, a beverage giant and major importer of our dairy products, and Zhejiang Material Group, China's 35th-largest company.
NZ groups on the mission include Fonterra, Air New Zealand, Auckland University, Glidepath, Glacier Investments, Mahon China, Richina Group, and Environmental Decontamination.
"Our aim is to make this economic powerhouse a key destination for more of our exports and services in the future," Mr Goff said.
"This has been given a huge boost by the signing of the FTA, which will see tariffs cut in a staged process so that by 2010, 96 per cent of all our goods into China will be tariff free.
"We have a head start on other countries and we must make the most of it."
