Interview with Prime Minister John Key: Trans Pacific Partnership can be concluded

We are in the heart of the TPP negotiations now so I think that New Zealand has demonstrated to the world that you can actually be very efficient on a global stage without subsidies if you have a fair trading regime.

The TPP is more advanced in its negotiations and the make-up between RCEP and TPP is slightly different.

We remain confident that TPP can be concluded. It’s ambitious for the twelve countries. Countries like Japan who have historically set outside of significant free trade agreements so this would be a big step for them. The United States, I think, has a variety of reasons why it’s very interested in seeing a successful outcome for TPP but nevertheless they still have to get it through their Congress and Senate.”

If we can see a successful conclusion to TPP that will be testimony to the absolute critical importance of APEC.

RCEP, I mean again, we are very interested in what’s happening there, partly because you’ve got players like India involved and particularly a free trade agreement with China, as well.

The interesting thing about APEC, I think, is that it has a clear objective and it wants to see free trade, it wants to see less barriers that are often held behind the border. It wants to see strong economic integration.