Green Co-leader Rod Donald today said calls for import tariffs on steel by the US International Trade Commission showed that a free trade deal with the United States was a mirage.

"Time and again the United States does whatever it needs to protect its own industries - whether those industries be lamb or steel - while still encouraging the rest of the world to shed their tariffs and open their borders," said Mr Donald.

"Trade Minister Jim Sutton should get real.

"Instead of chasing a free trade nirvana, we should be focusing on making the New Zealand economy more self reliant through the encouragement of import substitution which creates jobs, reduces the trade deficit and makes sense as the global economy slows down."

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>