KEY POINTS:
Heading into today's Apec meeting in Peru will be a strange experience for new Trade Minister - and former trade negotiator - Tim Groser.
His former colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been working on the programme for him. But pity help those who address him in the conventional fashion.
"I've told them in private that if anyone calls me 'Minister' I'm walking out," he told the Herald.
Mr Groser's gamble at quitting a top trade negotiator's job at the World Trade Organisation in 2005 to become a Trade Minister has paid off. It took three years. It would have happened sooner if National had won the 2005 election.
He has spent the past three years in Opposition watching while the Doha Round that he was so deeply involved in ground to a stop in July.
But Mr Groser now believes that the financial crisis could actually be that catalyst for getting it completed. The G20 summit in Washington last week instructed its own trade negotiators to try to break the deadlock.
"If we are lucky, it might just be the fillip we need to get us over the line, to get this agreement done.
"They are not going to do it at Apec but the G20 communique has really put the acid on people to get this deal done in terms of what is called modalities by the end of this year."
Mr Groser said that everyone was conscious of the "immense mistake made in the 1930s financial meltdown - of them going in to beggar-thy-neighbour trade restrictions".
The US responded with tariffs that protected local jobs, but other countries reciprocated and the temporary protections destroyed their jobs and export industries.
"So everybody was made worse.
"We know that the world economy is in serious trouble, although I hope and think personally it is past the meltdown phase and we are now seeing 'after-earthquake' ripples. Let's hope that is not too optimistic."
Despite his specialist knowledge, Mr Groser indicated he would not be looking for a dominant role in the Trade Ministers' meetings.
"Three years out of a negotiation you'd be a damned fool to try and march in with muddy boots early on. So I am going to be pretty quiet at this Apec and try and get the measure of it."
Mr Groser was planning to catch up last night with Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean for dinner in Lima, ahead of their Apec Trade Ministers' meeting today.
Mr Groser and Foreign Minister Murray McCully are one step ahead of Prime Minister John Key, who will arrive in Lima tomorrow for the weekend summit with leaders including United States President George W. Bush and China's President Hu Jintao.
Speaking after being named Trade Minister this week, Mr Groser said his top priority would be the completion of the Doha Round, and he believed it was "do-able."
His second priority would be working with the incoming Administration of President-elect Barack Obama to ensure the current US Administration's interest in joining the TransPac agreement (formerly the P4 of New Zealand, Singapore, Chile and Brunei) was maintained.
Australia had indicated close interest as well "and I'll be asking for clarification from Simon Crean about what that means in practice given that they already have an FTA [free trade agreement] with the United States".
