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Summary
- High-level talks to begin between the New Zealand and Australian PMs.
- New Zealand to back Australia as a third party in its dispute.
- To discuss other matters.
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison is visiting New Zealand from Sunday for high-level talks with its neighbouring country after New Zealand signaled that it was backing Australia in its dispute with China on barley tariffs.
This is the first high-level talks between the two Prime Ministers after 15 months. It became possible because of the opening of the quarantine-free travel, which began last month between both the countries.
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Even though both the Prime Ministers had denied China being the centrestage of their discussions on Monday with Jacinda Ardern saying that New Zealand has to discuss a Rule Book for post-COVID-19 relations and other things, the China issue is likely to figure prominently between the two countries, according to commentators.
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Difference of opinion on China
So far, both the countries had a difference of opinion on China. While Australia was at daggers drawn with China due to trade barriers it imposed on the former’s products like beef, wine and barley, New Zealand took a more diplomatic stand.
It may be recalled that China had imposed 80% tariffs on Australian barley imports last year, saying that Australia was dumping its barley in China below cost, resulted in hurting the Chinese domestic farmers.
The matter was taken to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and on Friday, the WTO set up a new panel to settle this dispute.
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New Zealand’s stand on the dispute
Recently, New Zealand confirmed that it would be backing Australia in this dispute as a third party as this matter raised questions on multilateral rule-based trading system.
NZ Trade Minister, Damien O’Connnor, confirmed New Zealand’s position in this regard.
Further, the minister clarified that even though New Zealand was not asked to join as a third party, it has been a third party in over 60 cases since 1995. He said it was not unusual for New Zealand to join as a third party whenever the country saw a threat to rule-based multilateral trading.
NZ’s strong trading links with China
While Australia are China are at loggerheads due to the latter banning Chinese company Huawei and also joining the group to investigate the origins of COVID-19, NZ’s economic ties with China have been going stronger.
New Zealand has also adopted a very cautious stand in dealing with China. It has not joined any political group and has had a very accommodative stand vis-à-vis China.
Last month, New Zealand had also taken a stand against the expanding role of the Five Eyes, the intelligence alliance, indicating New Zealand did not back any criticism of China.
So, it is expected that China and its growing influence in the region is going to figure prominently in the talks between the two Prime Ministers. Earlier, Damien O’ Connor had also advised the exporters to diversify their markets and reduce dependence on the Chinese markets.
Also Read: NZ raise Concerns over growing Dependence on the Chinese market
