Latest / Best of Business / Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on Chris Luxon's four-day trip to India

Transcript

Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on Chris Luxon's four-day trip to India · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Let's talk local politics. Now I'm joining my news talk
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: ZB political editor Jason Walls. Good morning, Good morning, How
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: are you very good? Thank you? As I mentioned, a
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: very big week for the government this week, the Prime
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Minister is on his way to India and what he
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: is hoping to do is to return with at least
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: a time frame in line to work towards a free
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: trade agreement. What do you think your chances are, Jason.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Well, I think something he's left the door open so wide,
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: something so vague that I think it's almost impossible that
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: he'll come back without something like that. He hasn't agreed
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: to and promise getting a free trade agreement during this trip,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: which would have been next to impossible. I mean, India
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: has been such a hard not to crack for so long.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Their protectionism around their dairy is so hard, especially with
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: somewhere like New Zealand where we put a lot of
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: our stock in the exporting of our So him saying
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: he's going to come home with a time frame to
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: maybe talk about how we can start to think about
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: getting some sort of free trade agreement off the line.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: It's basically a nothing burger because of course that's what
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: they're already doing. There's probably already a time frame. But
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: that's not to say that it's a bad thing. I
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: mean you need to be able to go to these
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: countries and try. India is massive, it's got a huge economy.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: So it's the right decision from the Prime Minister to
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: go over there, and probably the right decision not to
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: promise getting a free trade agreement across the line this
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: time because it's simply not going to happen. These things
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: do take time, and it's the right thing to do
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: to be able to try. The right thing to do
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: is to try and get one across the line, given
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: how I said, the economy is so massive.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Winston Peters is also in Washington, DC and New York
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: this week for meetings. Also pretty important when it comes
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: to trade and export.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Well, from one protectionist economy to the other, I mean
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: India to the US. We're looking to get some exemptions
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: to some agricultural tariffs over there, as well as some
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: steel and aluminium tariffs as well. Now, the likes of
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Australia haven't had much luck with that, and other countries
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: around the world haven't had much luck either, So it's
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: hard to think about New Zealand and thinking, well, why
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: are we going to get an exemption when the others don't.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: But from the conversations I've been having with some pretty
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: people that are in the know about trade agreements and
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: tariffs and whatnot, the Trump administration really likes it when
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: we have a trade balance, that is, we they trade
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: is about as much as they import with a country,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: and New Zealand is actually quite balanced when it comes
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: to its trade with the US. So maybe an exemption
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: for New Zealand isn't actually off the table because it's not,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: from Trump's perspective, altogether unfair that trading relationship. But still
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: it's going to be a really, really hard ask, and
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Winston Peter's a foreign minister, is meeting with the likes
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: of Marc or Rubio and other top politicians and lawmakers
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: over in the US to really try and work some
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: on the count.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: If we are not exempt, when could we expeak to
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: to kick off?
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Well, it's I mean, that's the question is because we
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: just don't know, because everything that Trump does seems to
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: be in a tweet or in some sort of off
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: the cuff comment with absolutely no details. So the last
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: time I talked to the Prime Minister about this, I
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: mean yeah, he was obviously a little bit worried, but said, listen,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: we just don't have any details on anything yet, so
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: I just can't give a straight answer.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Jason, I know you'll be keeping
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: a close eye on this throughout the week.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: For more from news Talks at b listen live on
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.