KEY POINTS:
Chinese investors attempting to buy New Zealand assets will not get preferential treatment under the recently signed trade deal, MPs were told yesterday.
Parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee was briefed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials for the first time yesterday on the deal signed in Beijing last week.
Ministry deputy secretary Mark Sinclair told MPs it was "difficult to overstate the significance" of the deal for New Zealand trade and wider strategic interests.
The deal will eventually see tariffs virtually eliminated between the two countries, and reduce other barriers to trade.
Green MP Keith Locke asked officials how the deal would affect New Zealand's overseas investment regime and any attempts to purchase electricity network operator Vector.
Vector is reported to have whittled down bidders for its Wellington network from 12 to four, among them Chinese Government-owned State Grid Corporation of China and Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd.
There have also been unconfirmed suggestions that the operator of Beijing International Airport might consider a stake in Auckland International Airport.
Some have suggested that requirements under the trade deal would mean a Chinese investor was treated the same as a New Zealander.
Foreign Affairs officials said this was not true as the requirement of equal treatment applied only to established investments, not attempts to acquire new investments.
MPs were told that any investment which triggered the overseas investment regulatory regime from China would be covered by this law.
This meant approval from officials, or in the case of some decisions ministers, would be required along the same lines as investments from any other country.
- NZPA
