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Trade Minister Phil Goff says Wellington's desire to include environmental, labour and other contentious issues in trade talks with South Asian countries is not the main barrier to progress - but New Zealand would be open to moving on the issues.
Mr Goff is in the Philippines for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) annual meeting of trade/economic ministers and was to meet Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu for talks today.
Malaysia's International Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz urged Australia and New Zealand not to make demands on issues that Asean had said it would not discuss. Doing so would only delay the deal, she said.
The demands included issues such as labour, government procurement, and environment and competition policies that were rejected at World Trade Organisation talks. Mrs Pangestu said there was "more to do" on issues other than trade but felt talks could be finalised next year. She said there was a need to find "the right balance between ambitions on the Australia-New Zealand side and the flexibility we need".
Mr Goff said New Zealand always put labour and environment agreements forward in trade talks but he was open to those areas being pursued through bilateral agreements.
New Zealand already had such agreements with three Asean countries - Brunei, Singapore and Thailand.
Mr Goff said: "From New Zealand's point of view we are willing to offer after a period-of-time tariff elimination on all goods, but that needs to be substantially reciprocated by other countries. New Zealand wouldn't be looking at eliminating its tariffs fully for another eight or nine years."
Mr Goff said he was hopeful a deal could be reached by mid-2008, adding that another goal of the meeting was to push for progress in the World Trade Organisation's Doha round of trade talks, due to resume in about two weeks in Geneva after a series of setbacks.
The WTO trade talks have frequently broken down and were suspended last year. Mr Goff said New Zealand wanted countries to engage constructively, because, "if the round does not succeed this year, it will be postponed until at least early- to mid-2009, and all countries are substantially losers from that process - particularly countries".
- NZPA
