New Zealand - China free trade deal

Great Debates
1

New Zealand has signed a free trade agreement with China. It’s the first developed nation to do so.

Why was NZ the first? I’m very familiar with its economy. Since their economy is tiny compared to China’s, I would guess it must be fairly orthogonal to China’s, since this seems to have gone through with little protest.

Are any other Western countries working on free trade with China? I hope so, on two counts. First, free trade increases the wealth of a country and the people in it (either directly, or indirectly through government services). Someone needs to be first, and I hope NZ’s example will encourage others.

And second, I think China needs to be better integrated into the international economy. This will encourage them to behave like a civilized state, by increasing their dependence on others. Greater wealth will also give the Chinese people more power to influence their government.

Does anyone have more details on this free trade deal? Or comments on it?

2

Hey, waitaminnit – China has had most favored nation status with the U.S. since the first Bush Admin.

3

MFN status means regular tariffs apply to the imports from that country. Free trade status mean no tariffs (although most agreements have a few loopholes).

4

The short version is that it means… new Zealand wants to drop its important tarifs. And pretty much nothing else. Tihs might somewhat increase the volume of Chinese imports there, but probably not a whole lot. And that’s it. It really doesn’t have any larger geopolitical meaning.