Peters is dreaming

The Herald reports:

Foreign Minister Winston Peters is making positive sounds about a long sought after free trade agreement between New Zealand and the world’s biggest economy, the United States.
New Zealand does not have a free trade agreement with the US, despite various attempts over the years to secure such a deal.
But speaking to RNZ this morning, Peters hinted that recent progress had been made.
He said there was still life in a US/NZ free trade deal.

This is arrant nonsense. The chances of a free trade deal with the US are somewhere between zero and nil.

Peters said he’s had conversations with US Vice-President Mike Pence about this very matter, who assured him work was being done to progress the deal.

The Vice-President has no say on trade policy. Neither for that matter does the Secretary of Commerce or the Trade Negotiator. The only policy setter is the President.

And the NZ Government failed miserably at even getting an exemption to Trump’s steel tariffs. This shows how out of favour we are.