KEY POINTS:
A free trade agreement between New Zealand and the United States was logical rather than inevitable, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said in Auckland yesterday.
He was speaking to reporters at the US-NZ Partnership Forum in Auckland - a closed-door conference for about 100 leading business leaders and officials from both countries to discuss the relationship.
Mr Hill referred in his conference speech to an "eventual" FTA with New Zealand but later said it was not inevitable.
"Nothing is inevitable."
But with hard work and goodwill, the economic relationship would grow.
The Partnership Forum itself was a good exercise in building contacts in the business community.
"If all these things go forward, there will be a logic rather than an inevitability to do more and I think we could end up with a free trade agreement."
Mr Hill also talked about the historical ties between the countries but said: "Just because our ties are durable does not mean the relationship should not be modernised."
Prime Minister Helen Clark opened the conference with Mr Hill and said that the relationship had "a proud history and a very promising future".
Over the past 18 months, both governments had been taking stock of the relationship and were looking for ways to work more closely.
"We've accepted that while we cannot ignore our differences, nor would we let them define the overall relationship."
She hoped that the two councils - the US-NZ Council and its sister body, the NZ-US Council, would continue to press for New Zealand "to be included as an FTA partner when the time is right".
Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage set the discussion behind closed doors, outlining challenges for the United States around the world.
He said that Asia was the most important region for the United States.
The questions of greater co-operation with New Zealand arose in the context of the United States needing to engage more in the region.
Helen Clark paid tribute to the presence of 93-year-old Anne Martindell, who served as US ambassador to New Zealand from 1979 to 1981.
She founded the US-NZ Council.
Mrs Martindell, who gets around on a walking frame these days, had been a state senator before being appointed ambassador by President Jimmy Carter.
She said she had made the trip from her home in Princeton, New Jersey, for the forum because it was an important occasion for the relationship.
"It's not easy when you are 93 but I was determined to make it."
Mrs Martindell said she founded the council on her return from the posting because the relationship had been "getting a little sticky".
That was at the time of a Muldoon-led National Government, when New Zealand was still part of the Anzus security alliance and well before Labour's anti-nuclear laws.
She said the view back then was that New Zealand was not pulling its weight in the defence area.
She had arguments with State Department officials, including the former Deputy Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz, who, she said, had been in charge of the relationship.
"I don't know how I got the idea but I was happy to do the opposite of what he wanted me to do."
Water music spoils flush of success
The opening of the US-NZ Partnership Forum in Auckland yesterday began with a majestic audio-visual tour of New Zealand replicated on six screens around the walls, accompanied by song from Kiri Te Kanawa and thumping bass drums.
The camera swooped and climbed through some of the loveliest natural scenes the country has to offer.
When a sound of water started up a short time later, it seemed a crowning touch - a waterfall, perhaps a forest waterfall, akin to the native birdsong that greets and calms the new arrivals at Auckland International Airport.
But then water sound came again. And 10 minutes later it came again.
Then it became obvious it was actually the sound of water gurgling through pipes.
Then it became horribly clear that it was actually the sound of a flushing lavatory upstairs.
The water feature was at its height when Prime Minister Helen Clark and Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill mounted a podium set up directly under the pipes for the signing of a working holiday agreement for young New Zealand students in the United States for up to a year.
A quick inspection later on the floor above confirmed the presence of two sets of conveniences, a men's and women's - though they were blocked off from use. It appeared to be the only glitch in an otherwise flawless conference on the inside, at least.
Outside the venue, about 70 anti-globalisation and anti-war protesters jostled with police at lunchtime when they were blocked from marching on to the wharf, towards the Hilton Hotel.
Mr Hill said at a press conference later that he hadn't seen the protesters when he had walked from the hotel on the wharf to the Maritime Museum and to Queen St.
The conference has attracted a strong police presence.
