On February 2, Chen Deming, minister of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), met with the visiting New Zealand trade minister Groser in Beijing.
Chen stated that China-New Zealand economic and trade relations is in the best historic period, with frequent exchanges between high levels of the two states laying a good political foundation of bilateral economic and trade cooperation. It was negatively Impacted by the international financial crisis, but the bilateral trade still rose by 3.6% to USD4.56b, especially both witnessing a strong momentum of Chinese import from New Zealand. The signing of Sino-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement is completely right, which is featured with foresight and sagacity and really benefits the people of the two countries.
Chen proposed three proposals on deepening Sino-New Zealand economic and trade cooperation: firstly, continue to do well the implementation of Sino-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement and give full play to the existing mechanism to properly deal with contradictions and divergences; secondly, welcome the enterprises of New Zealand to cooperate with their Chinese counterparts in energy conservation and environmental protection in Chinese national economic and technological development zones; and thirdly, strengthen bilateral information communication and policy coordination in boosting WTO Doha Round Negotiations and regional economic cooperation.
Groser completely agreed with Chen and though highly of Sino-New Zealand economic and trade ties. He deemed that the two countries’ economy is possessed of natural complementarity and the implementation of free trade agreement has greatly uplifted the level of bilateral trade. China has leapt to be the second largest trade partner of New Zealand, with the export to China doubling in the past 5 years. In addition, New Zealand welcomes Chinese enterprises to carry out investment cooperation in the areas of natural resources, energy-saving and environmental protection technologies and aquiculture.
Both parties compared notes on food safety, developing low-carbon economy and coping with climate change.
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