US too busy for free trade

Monday, Aug 11, 2003



US too busy for free trade


A United States trade official says his country isn't prepared to negotiate a free trade deal with New Zealand right now, because it's preoccupied with other issues.

The US Under-secretary for International Trade Administration, Grant Aldonas, made the announcement after meeting the Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton, in Wellington.

He says America is holding free trade talks with Australia, but his government isn't prepared to discuss whether New Zealand could piggy back off those negotiations. (snip)

(snip) Aldonas says although New Zealand's failure to support the war in Iraq has been noted, the US also recognises kiwi contributions in other areas. (snip/)

Source: RNZ

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kiwi contributions in other areas? I was always under the impression that New Zealand was a valued trading partner of the U.S. in more ways than just the kiwi. Just blame it on the kiwi if your leadership don't fall into lockstep.

The most recent reason has to do with our PM saying that the war in Iraq would not have happened if Gore had been President. Our anti-nuke stance doesn't help, nor does our heavily pro-UN stance. The most ironic thing about this is that an ex-Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mike Moore, was Director General of the WTO until 1 September 2002!

So much for free trade huh? It seems 'free' means "the US is free to do as it wishes, so screw everybody else". I guess there is nothing new there then.

One other thing: The US doesn't want free trade with us, but it sure as hell doesn't mind taking the intelligence it gets from its Echelon base in Tangimoana, New Zealand.

By the way, the first person to tell the world about Echelon was a New Zealand author who has often been labelled a conspiracy theorist, Nicky Hagar. It seems conspiracy theorists sometimes get it right.