Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
15 JULY 2016

Hague Award More Sour than Sweet for New Zealand

The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague award rejecting China’s claim of maritime entitlements in the South China Sea should be of serious concern to New Zealand.

China seeks global respectability but snubs this international body’s findings based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Over $5 trillion in international trade passes through this region.

Given our membership on the UN Security Council the Prime Minister needs to use plain “Kiwi speak” to bamboo power.

Of course he won’t as he and his ilk are in thrall to Chinese commerce, a narrow merchant banker’s view which seriously endangers New Zealand exporters.

In 2008 I warned the then Labour Government as well as the National Party, as Labour negotiated the China Free Trade deal that we would rue the day that our largest exporters became perilously dependent on China. At the time it was clear that far too much of the economy would be dependent upon one exporter, Fonterra, one product, milk powder and one market, China.

That warning has come to pass and demonstrates how short-sighted so many cheerleaders for that deal really were and are.

There can be little doubt that Fonterra is being monstered in China as the Prime Minister was on his last visit thereby the Chinese press, before he even got to say one word on his official visit. Remember, the Chinese state media warned him not to bring up the South China Sea dispute during his official visit.

At the present time Mr Key’s government is trying to re-negotiate the Free Trade Agreement with China which in itself is evidence of naivety on New Zealand’s part at the time of the 2008 agreement.

There will be all sorts of statements claiming that the South China issue and threats to New Zealand’s trade are separate issues. They are not.

Exporters to China, if they were honest, would already have admitted that.

The New Zealand food sector is in serious danger of being treated as economic vassals every time we challenge China to conform with international law. Perhaps it is time for Mr Key and others to reflect on the potential wreckage their policies point to for New Zealand.

This is a time for New Zealand to proceed with the utmost caution and abandon the cavalier, aspirational, naivety that has been attendant in this relationship in recent years.

ENDS

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