Pledge made during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Wellington
China and New Zealand ramped up their cooperation on Monday, pledging to expand their existing free trade agreement into what visiting Premier Li Keqiang called China’s “most advanced” with a developed country. The two governments also promised to work together on a Chinese trade and business expansion strategy that Beijing calls “One Belt, One Road”. Li signed nine pacts with New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English, who said talks to upgrade their free trade agreement, in effect since 2008, would begin on April 25. The upgrade would produce an arrangement of the most advanced level between the nations and the first of its kind between China and a developed country, Li said in Wellington. In a column published on Monday in the , headlined “To New Zealand, with love”, Li wrote that rising international instability and uncertainty “have made it all the more important for China and New Zealand to work together to turn challenges into opportunities”. New Zealand depends heavily on exports and Li’s remarks echoed those by English and New Zealand central bank governor, Graeme Wheeler, who have warned that possible disruptions of global trade is the biggest threat to prosperity.
