The Prime Minister says he will speak to world leaders on
Thursday about working together to maintain free
trade.
US president Donald Trump on Thursday (NZT)
announced he
would be putting a 90-day pause on his tariff plans,
while hiking tariffs on China to 125%.
In a
pre-planned speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce –
originally planned before Trump’s reversal – Luxon said he
would be on the phone to world leaders, “comparing notes on
world trade, and testing what we can do together to buttress
the rules-based trading system”.
Luxon said he would
also visit the UK later this month to meet Prime Minister
Keir Starmer “to talk trade, security, and the geopolitical
backdrop in Europe and the Indo-Pacific”.
He said New
Zealand would continue to work with like-minded countries to
promote free trade as a path to prosperity and explore the
role of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for
Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in strengthening that
vision.
The CPTPP is a free trade agreement involving
12 Indo-Pacific economies. The UK also joined in December
last year.
“One possibility is that members of the
CPTPP and the European Union work together to champion
rules-based trade and make specific commitments on how that
support plays out in practice,” Luxon said.
“My vision
is that includes action to prevent restrictions on exports
and efforts to ensure any retaliation is consistent with
existing rules.
“Collective action, and a collective
commitment, by a large portion of the global economy would
be a significant step towards preserving free trade flows
and protecting supply
chains.”
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