Ryan Bridge: Are trade missions worth it?

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Oct 28, 2025 · 2m · transcript

Did you catch the comments yesterday from Malaysia Deputy PM.

He was talking to a kiwi delegation off in KL for ASEAN.

"This will be your new market and we welcome any halal product from New Zealand."

I have always been pretty sceptical about these trade missions, whether they actually achieve something or are just a giant junket.

The truth is their a bit of both.

On a trip to Vladivostok in Russia back in 2011, our PM got a sit down with Vladimir Putin.

The guy was late. We waited in the rain for hours. And then he came in in, sat down, spoke in Russian, then had his body guards usher us out…