Hon Phil Goff
Minister of Trade

11 may 2007

Goff welcomes bi-partisan agreement on trade

Trade Minister Phil Goff has welcomed the agreement on trade between the Republican Administration and Democrat controlled Congress in the United States which was announced in Washington today.

Mr Goff is currently in Washington and has met with US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and senior members from both parties in congress

"This agreement is regarded by both parties as a significant move forward for US trade policy", Mr Goff said.

"It means free trade agreements with countries like Peru and Panama which have been signed can now be ratified by Congress. More importantly for us it means a much greater prospect that bipartisan agreement will be achieved to allow for renewal of the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) which fast tracks approval of trade agreements.

"This is necessary to allow the WTO round to conclude and also for the US to consider entering into further bilateral free trade agreements, hopefully including New Zealand, but it doesn't mean that the TPA will automatically be renewed.

"The prospects for this happening will be enhanced if the G4 economies (US, EU, Brazil, India) achieve a breakthrough on issues currently dividing them. If this occurs, Congress would be unlikely to block the TPA but no decisions at this point have been made regarding entering new negotiations for free trade agreements with New Zealand or any other country.

"New Zealand however will continue the push for such negotiations. Our prospects of getting those have certainly been improved by the considerable warming of the US-NZ relationship in recent times. This has been highlighted by the Prime Ministers very successful visit to Washington and US Ambassador to New Zealand, Bill McCormick's comments last week that the relationship is the strongest it has been for decades.

"There is good support for New Zealand's case in Congress and in the business sector and growing support within the administration itself. It makes sense for two countries which share close values and work together effectively on trade liberalisation to remove barriers to trade between themselves", Phil Goff said.

ENDS

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