September 14, 2016 1:00pm by David Farrar

The quadrupling of exports NZ First and Greens voted against

New Zealand’s trade relationship with China has nearly tripled over the past decade, with two-way trade rising from $8.2 billion in the year ended June 2007 to $23 billion in the June 2016 year. Annual exports to China have quadrupled and annual imports from China have doubled since the June 2007 year.

This is of course also roughly the period since NZ and China agreed a free trade agreement. It was Labour’s finest foreign policy achievement and Clark and Goff should be very proud of it.

But remember that Greens and NZ First voted and campaigned against it. When they claim to be on the side of exporters, they voted against a deal which has seen exports increase 400% – way beyond the most optimistic projections or even hopes.