New Zealand wholesale trade rose in the third quarter as a jump in fruit exports drove the biggest quarterly gain in sales of grocery, liquor and tobacco in more than 20 years.

A cartoon circulating on Twitter carries a warning for the oil industry.

NZX, New Zealand's financial markets operator, has increased the minimum volume of lots required in block trades of whole and skim milk powder futures, citing increased activity.

In the face of New Zealand's irrational reluctance to walk away from a bad deal, a climate 'carve out' may be our best chance for a healthy climate future, writes Alexandra Macmillan and Rhys Jones.

Dairy prices look to have finally bottomed out and tentative signs have emerged in the futures market that they may soon improve.

The Japanese government has drafted an outline of comprehensive policies related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact.

Twenty Chinese e-commerce companies have been invited to New Zealand to attend the Bank of China's (BOC) 'Building Online Distribution' event to be held on Friday.

New Zealand is boosting its development funding to the Asean region, Prime Minister John Key announced today,

Sub-Saharan has had the fastest economic growth over the last 10 years.

Area labelling is sure to be extended in the upcoming free trade talks with the European Union, writes Audrey Young.

"The large number of documents released today amount to over 6000 pages of text and market access schedules," Trade Minister Tim Groser said.

Jane Kelsey explains what the EU has to gain from an agreement with NZ, which has almost no tariffs and Europe is the 2nd largest source of foreign investment.

Just as good as the RWC victory was the news that NZ and the EU are to begin working towards negotiating a free trade agreement, writes Phil O'Reilly.

Any chance of an upgrade in Fonterra's farmer payout became more remote today after a big drop in world dairy prices.

Trade talks with EU may take years to start, writes Audrey Young.

Ten major oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Saudi Aramco declared on Friday that they totally get the climate change thing and would support measures aimed at preventing it.

Yesterday European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström, announced she would seek approval from the European Union to launch trade negotiations with New Zealand.

If governments want to play by secret squirrel rules they can hardly accuse those who raise alarms based on best available information of scaremongering, writes Jane Kelsey.

Clouds continue to obscure the horizon, as uncertainty about China's slowdown clouds the outlook.

The TPP was much more about winning a few tariff reductions, writes Bernard Hickey.

David Snell talks about international connections that bring scale, competition, investment and ideas.

Tim Groser has a sales job in front of him after the Trans-Pacific Partnership kept the doors open wide to foreign investment in Auckland's red hot housing market.

As dust settles on TPP negotiations, much attention will turn to analysing the full text of the agreement and understanding its costs and benefits, writes John Ballingall.