New Zealand’s trading future with Asia

Abstract

New Zealanders have had a close relationship with Asia since World War 2 almost without realising that we had a close relationship. Japan was one of the first countries to grant us visa free access. In the 1950’s and 60’s we had important connections with Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand and with Vietnam and Rewi Alley did us proud in China. Nevertheless, many New Zealanders perhaps don’t see New Zealand as part of Asia. In many ways we are not. Buenos Aires and Los Angeles are almost as close by plane as Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong or Tokyo. Our heritage and culture is largely Pacific and British. But we are affiliated with Asia in ways that we are not yet affiliated with South America and we are involved in Asia in ways that we used to be (and are not now) involved in the UK. Bryce Harland puts this down to a statement that the Australia diplomat Dick Woolcott once made that when it comes to Asia, we are the “odd man in” (Harland, 1997). This paper attempts to summarise the mutuality of interest of Asia and New Zealand and to assess the likelihood that the bilateral and regional relationships can be managed to reap the potential gains that are available. New Zealand’s interests are very broad because we are so tiny in land mass and population terms and Asia is a natural focus for international trade as well as being an important link to the Middle East and Europe. Asia encompasses a wide variety of countries from Eastern Russia to Bangladesh, from one of the highest income per capita countries in the world (Japan) to some of the lowest (Vietnam and Bangladesh), from democratic to relatively autocratic styles of government, from countries which are very open to trade to countries which are highly protectionist, from comparative advantages in manufacturing to comparative advantages in agriculture. There are two sets of questions. First, why is Asia important to us and second, what do we have to contribute to Asia.