While moves toward a bi-lateral trade agreement with the United States have appeal, New Zealand must tread warily to avoid locking in current protection for key New Zealand exports, ACT Trade Negotiations Spokesman Owen Jennings said.

"It is incomprehensible that the United States will in any agreement with New Zealand alone unlock its vicious protection of its farmers and allow improved access for new Zealand pastoral products. It will take continuing multilateral pressure from worldwide interests to bring down the United States barriers.

"The Government must continue to put pressure on for an international trade agreement. If New Zealand diverts its scant resources into bilateral arrangements that do not reduce protection the consequences for exporters will be bleak in the long term.

"The Government is in danger of pursuing bilateral agreements at the expense of more fruitful international arrangements," Owen Jennings.

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