“It really is just a timely reminder by the minister to NZ business that they should factor in risk as well as opportunity,” Young said.
Young says the Ardern government has not shied away from raising issues with their Chinese counterparts and have done so carefully.
“I don’t imagine they will move away from that position,” he said.
Mahuta has warned NZ could become entangled in a fallout from China’s dispute with Australia as we are pressured to side with our traditional friends to take a firmer stance on China’s human rights and expansionist issues.
Former special agricultural trade envoy Mike Petersen does not think it inevitable NZ will have a fallout with China, and he views Mahuta’s comments as advising exporters to be prepared in case there is a thaw in relations.
“I read her comments as trying to tell exporters to be prepared in case there is a thaw in relations with China,” Petersen said.
“I just don’t think she worded it as well as she could have.”
Petersen says NZ should pursue an independent foreign policy and raise issues with China on which it disagrees, but that stance does not need to be at the expense of trade relations.
The executive director of the NZ International Business Forum Stephen Jacobi says the Government has successfully navigated its relationships with China and friendship with other countries, and Mahuta was right to warn of growing geopolitical risks.
“They are not wrong to advise exporters to diversify,” Jacobi said.
“They’re not asking exporters to do less business with China, but to do more business everywhere else.”
He acknowledged that diversification was easy in theory but hard to achieve in practice, but says the Government has been negotiating new free trade agreements (FTAs).
Jacobi thought the words used by Mahuta were consistent with previous statements by her and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and more moderate than that used by the Australian government.
