The Minister of Trade will launch the first academic survey of New Zealand's trade negotiations from the 1970s to the present in Wellington on Thursday, 20 July.

Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations, Stephen Hoadley, from the Faculty of Arts, has reviewed trade diplomacy from early attempts to sell beef to Japan to current efforts to secure free trade agreements with Europe, Britain, and the United States.

His subsequent book New Zealand Trade Negotiations details the setting of precedent in Closer Economic Relations with Australia in 1983 and then how a dozen more free trade agreements were negotiated successfully, all of which boosted New Zealand producers’ access to overseas markets.

“New Zealand has been a leader in trade liberalisation since we negotiated privileged entry to the European Economic Community in 1971,” says Dr Hoadley.

His book traces New Zealand’s successful FTA initiatives with Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, ASEAN, South Korea and Chile and its achievement of trade ‘firsts’ with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

After reviewing New Zealand’s participation in the World Trade Organisation, Dr Hoadley offers speculation regarding seven pending FTAs, the suspended Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the prospective Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Both the Hon Todd McClay, Minister of Trade, and Stephen Jacobi, Executive Director of the New Zealand International Business Forum, will help launch New Zealand Trade Negotiations at the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Wellington.

Date: 20 July 2017, 5:30 – 7.30 pm

Venue: RHLT2, Rutherford House Victoria University of Wellington –

Pipitea Campus, 23 Lambton Quay, Wellington

Please register here

| A UOA release  ||  July 18, 2017   |||