National to step up tempo of trade missions

National would step up the tempo of trade missions to other countries, especially in Asia, says Prime Minister and National Party Leader John Key.

Releasing the National Party's trade policy today, Mr Key said enhancing and growing New Zealand's international trade links was a key part of our plan to build a stronger economy and create more jobs with higher incomes.

"National has made substantial progress in improving New Zealand's access to other countries' markets, and we aim to build on that progress with this policy," says Mr Key.

"On Sunday there was news of further progress, with the announcement at the Apec summit of the broad outlines for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement. This was an important step towards gaining greater access for New Zealand exporters.

"However, there is still a lot of work that can be done in improving the competitiveness of New Zealand exports in key markets, and encouraging companies to take advantage of the opportunities they have.

"To do this we need better coordination of New Zealand's core strengths - which is the key idea behind the Government's 'NZ Inc' country strategies," says Mr Key.

The trade policy focuses on three areas:

* Pursuing further high-quality trade agreements by continuing to focus on completing successful free trade agreements out of our on-going negotiations, and concluding a quality TPP agreement while ensuring New Zealand's best interests are served.

* Rolling out the NZ Inc Strategy programme, including the release of more NZ Inc strategies.

* Boosting trade missions by developing a comprehensive programme of Government-led trade delegations to China, India and Asean, and targeting at least 28 high-quality trade missions led by ministers over the next three years.

"Stepping up the tempo of trade missions has been driven in part by recent experience in Asia that has shown that Government-led missions are a vital part of opening doors in Asia for New Zealand businesses.

"While the Government can put in place the architecture to allow freer, trade, we must also take a role in ensuring New Zealand can make the most of those agreements. That is what these trade missions are about."

Visit the policy at:

http://national.org.nz/files/2011/Trade_policy.pdf

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