After months of bad headlines, Chris Luxon’s trip to India seems to be harvesting dividends – not just economically, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s bulletin extract.
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PM put victories on the board
Christopher Luxon is having a good week. His trip to India began with a crash – an announcement that New Zealand and India must restart commercial negotiations 10 years after the last attempt collapsing. The second day began with not one, but two hugs from Narendra Modi, the leader of the 1.4 billion people from India, and ended with a well received speech to the Raisina dialogue, India’s main geopolitical and economy conference. In the middle, the ex -of Air NZ took a moment to summon the Mike Hosking show on Newstalk ZB, telling Hosking that he felt optimistic that the growing demand would lead to direct flights between India and New Zealand in a short time.
FTA A huge opportunity for New Zealand exporters
For New Zealand, a Free Trade Agreement (TLC) would mean a major momentum for the $ 3.14 billion in annual trade with India we do today – which is less than a tenth of trade generated by China. In fact, “in many ways, India is the new China,” writes Chris Ogden of the University of Auckland in the conversation. The fastest growing economy in the world, India is “on the verge of becoming a great power and is being courted by all countries, large and small.” Together with the commerce of goods such as wool and wood pulp, there is a great opportunity for New Zealand to increase our educational exports to India, writes Ogden, especially due to the fall in the number of students in China. “With the US and the United Kingdom becoming more hostile to immigration, New Zealand can offer a relatively safe and tolerant alternative.”
Where dairy products?
As in 2015, the discord point for a TLC will be a dairy. If India remains firm in its refusal to open its market to milk and foreign cheese, New Zealand will need to decide whether this is enough reason to move away from the negotiating table. Business leaders differ if it would be worth signing an interim, dairy tlc, writes Laura Walter from Newsroom. Stephen Jacobi, from the New Zealand International Business Forum, says it is not time to show the world that New Zealand would arrest their largest export winner. “Why would you do this now in the middle of a global crisis for our commercial interests?”
Luxon in your element
For Luxon, the journey from India has been good news of great news among a flood of painfully negative headlines. His speech to the Raisina dialogue was the first -minister in the best way possible, writes Luke Malpass from the post, who is traveling with the delegation. “He was in front of his people and dealing with questions the way he likes it: great thematic problems and changes, not deeply in the details or dealing with questions about school lunch or his vice -first -current or future minister,” writes Malpass.
As for the TLC potential, simply to announce negotiations “must have been a filling for any signaling confidence,” writes Toby Manhire this morning on the Spinoff. “Yesterday’s Global Newswire Manchete, ‘India and New Zealand seek to reinforce the ties after!
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