Speeches and Articles
NZ US Pacific partnership set for lift off
Stephen Jacobi
Dominion Post, 04 October 2010
In Washington DC on 9 September Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, Kurt Campbell, gave the most fulsome description of the NZ US relationship I have seen in the five years I have been heading the NZ US Council.
Despite an economic environment which continues to present challenges, the times could not be better for New Zealand’s relations with the United States with a radically different tone now being used for the relationship, deepening political ties and free trade negotiations in the context of the Trans Pacific Partnership getting underway.
The occasion for Kurt Campbell’s comments was the launch of a major new study of the NZ US relationship by the influential Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The “Pacific Partners” study is being jointly funded by the NZ US Council and our counterpart organisation in Washington, the US NZ Council. The study will culminate early next year in a report on the state of the bilateral relationship with recommendations on how to further strengthen existing links. The research, in collaboration with the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, will consider a range of aspects including trade and investment; security; science, technology and education; socio-cultural ties and transnational issues such as climate change, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, nuclear non-proliferation, and global health.
Newly appointed New Zealand Ambassador Mike Moore said the study would be both “honest and robust” and “will be a roadmap that makes a good relationship even better.” Kurt Campbell agreed saying we’ve gone from having a bilateral relationship that was “profoundly underperforming”, to one that is moving ahead across a range of key fronts. “I will tell you quite honestly, said Campbell, the United States and New Zealand see the world in such similar terms – in fact, in many respects, much closer than some countries that would be described as formal allies in the current environment. … I think it’s a fantastic foundation to build on to move forward."
The results of the Pacific Partners study will be presented and discussed at the fourth US NZ Partnership Forum which will take place in Christchurch on 20-22 February 2011. The Forum meeting under the theme of “The Power of Partnering: Global Challenges and the Future of the US-NZ Partnership” will bring together around a hundred high level leaders from government, business and the wider community. The Forum’s agenda takes in strategic issues of mutual concern such as food security and climate change, as well as regional issues such as economic growth and political/security engagement.
There has been quite a distance travelled since the first Partnership Forum held in Washington in April 2006 when the atmospherics in the relationship were quite different. That first event made a cautious start on the road to relationship-improvement. Since then the Forum has emerged as the key vehicle through which a significant turn-around has been achieved in relations over recent years.
Back in 2006 the idea of a free trade agreement seemed like an impossible dream. Today negotiations under the umbrella of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) make that goal a more realistic possibility, even though we are still at the beginning of a complex and possibly lengthy negotiation between eight partners. Two rounds of negotiations have been held so far. The third round is coming up later this month (October) and further rounds are scheduled until November 2011. Both the US and New Zealand Governments, and the six other parties, have embarked on TPP with a high level of ambition. It is too soon to say to what extent this ambition will be met. There is a lot at stake. TPP is important not only to create a more level playing field for New Zealand’s exports to the United States and to address the competitive balance between the United States and other partners including China and ASEAN in New Zealand. TPP is also a potential building block towards greater economic integration across the Asia Pacific region.
Against this positive outlook for the relationship needs to be set however the continuing fallout from the global financial crisis and a difficult economic situation in the United States. The US economy appears to continue to slow - second quarter growth was 2.4 percent down from 5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. Unfortunately significant risks to economic recovery remain and will for some time constrain our ability to develop the economic relationship even as we work to improve the ease with which our companies can do business. Meantime the need to open up new trade and investment and reduce transaction costs around the region effectively raise the stakes of TPP.
The NZ US relationship will get a further boost if Kurt Campbell’s boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visits New Zealand as she reportedly plans to do in November. A visit in January this year was postponed on account of the Haiti earthquake. The Secretary’s visit will be the occasion not just for further rhetoric but for in-depth discussions on issues that matter – security, trade, sustainable development, regional co-operation. The Secretary’s visit should help direct the relationship’s upward trajectory and confirm that the two countries are moving beyond business as usual and setting an ambitious vision for the future.
