Paperwork needed to finish a Saudi agrihub project was located more than three years after 900 pregnant ewes were flown from New Zealand writes NZHerald political reporter, Nicholas Jones ,in today's Herald.

In an era of ‘fake news’ and highly inflated social media status updates, it’s refreshing when a brand seeks to cut through the mire of media overhype to deliver a report that bares it all.

New Zealand exporters which sent $120m of goods to Iran last year may be affected by US president Donald Trump's threat to sanction countries who trade with the Middle Eastern nation.

The government says political considerations about New Zealand's relationship with China aren't the reason why it chose not to tax Chinese steel imports, as local steel producer New Zealand Steel attempts to have that decision overturned in the High Court.

In July 2017, then-Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Jacqui Dean decided not to impose countervailing duties on imports of galvanised steel coil from China, following an investigation by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment which found that Chinese subsidies on the steel were too small to have injured the domestic industry.

NZ Steel, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australia's Bluescope Steel, lodged an application for judicial review of the former minister's decision in September 2017. It says Chinese steel flooded the local market and cut into its profits, and wants the court to quash the decision and have it be reconsidered by going back and re-investigating the matter. The hearing began on Monday, and is set down for the rest of the week, in front of Justice Jillian Mallon.

In opening the government's reply today, the Crown's lawyer James Every-Palmer QC said all relevant considerations were taken into account in making the decision, based on information that was available to it and that it considered to be reliable, and that it provided full reasons and correctly interpreted the act and did not act unreasonably.

"The application for judicial review here attacks matters that are really for the decision maker - the process of inference, the weighting of evidence, and the evaluative judgements it made," Every-Palmer said. "In our submission it's fair to characterise the application as seeking a merits review of the decision that was made, effectively an extra round of the decision-making process, but one in which there's only one interested party participating, and so the new material and evidence presented hasn't been tested in any systematic way." Every-Palmer stressed the decision was "absolutely was not affected by any concerns about how China might react", and later referred to an affidavit from former minister Dean on her making the decision not to impose duties.

Dean noted that "during the investigation, I recall noting media reports about the visit by the Premier Li Keqiang to New Zealand around March 2017, but the matter discussed in those media reports did not affect my decision in any way", Every-Palmer said.

A BusinessDesk release   ||  May 09, 2018   |||

The 123rd session of China Import and Export Fair, widely known as the Canton Fair, has seen the number of buyers soared 5.3 percent year-on-year, which was 5-year record high.   The Canton Fair, largest and most important trade fair in China that was held in Guangzhou, South China's  Guangdong Province. As of Thursday, it recorded transaction volume of 189.2 billion yuan ($30.1 billion), up 3.1 percent year-on-year, according to a statement the fair sent to the Global Times on Sunday.

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Wellington / WAM

His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, met Winston Peters, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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