Why we should ban trade with Saudi Arabia 

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The mantra from MFAT is that if we only traded with regimes we liked we wouldn’t trade with anyone, which is fine and dandy, but surely there are limits right?

Like Saudi Arabia.

A country that gives 200 lashes to a woman gang raped, a country that treats women less than we treat our sheep, a country that crucifies people.

Just think about that for a second, crucifixion!

They literally crucify people in the 21st century.

This latest embarrassment of Air NZ helping repair the military hardware of a country currently embroiled in war crimes is shameful enough, but this is nothing new.

National attempted to bribe a Saudi businessman to get a free trade deal, and this Labour Government in 2018 signed up to that trade deal.

I don’t wish to be that guy, but surely trading with a country that actually crucifies its people diminishes our mana as a people.

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How venal are we for a buck in this country?

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7 COMMENTS

  1. I agree however where do you start and where do you stop though? That is the million dollar question. Case in point Burma – we stopped relations with them overnight due to a military coup yet around the corner the Thai military will do a similar thing and we’ll ignore it.

    Ditto the Middle East. Surely no trade with Iran, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and UAE then over their human rights abuses?

    Saudi Arabia is a favourite target of the left largely because they align with the West that has turned a blind eye to the human rights abuses that have gone on in the country. They also have been strategically important in regards to the supply of oil.

    If we go down this track this needs to be applied to all countries. Are we brave enough to withstand the consequences?

    • Bang on. If we look hard enough we wouldn’t trade with anyone.

      I always find it ironic that the UN put trade sanctions against South Africa due to not allowing blacks the vote. Yet China allows no one to vote and it’s all ok?

  2. We LOVE human rights abuses in NZ. Not just Saudi but we LOVE china who has millions in concentration camps, rapes and forces Muslims into concentration camps, have taken over Hong Kong which was supposed to be neutral and jails and silences doctors who try to stop Covid spreading.

    They don’t even seem very good for business either long term. China wins, Farmers lose. First Sanlu then Beingmate. Then the PSA bacteria from China that destroyed NZ Kiwifruit industry.

    Contaminated milk scandal hurting Fonterra
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/3715/contaminated-milk-scandal-hurting-fonterra

    Fonterra’s Chinese partner forecasts big loss after milk powder scandal
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/82289543/fonterras-chinese-partner-forecasts-big-loss-after-milk-powder-scandal

  3. Which countries do not do trade with Saudi Arabia because of their treatment of its citizens .
    What you say is correct in theory but where do you draw the line. China Russian Philippines many of the other Arab States countries in Africa and Asia all have a poor record when it comes to treatment of its citezens especially if they are the wrong religion or ethnicity

  4. Good comments Frank and saveNZ.
    I agree– it’s complicated.
    I was once asked to sign a petition to stop all NZ trade with Australia because of their mistreatment of Aboriginals.

  5. I wonder who pressured the Social Democrats over Myanmar just recently. They never battered an eye during the slaughter of the Rohingya by the previous government in Myanmar. Now the Saudis are back in the headlines but there is a lot more to loose with the Saudis than Burma but it reeks of double standards.
    Gone are the days when we put a stake in the ground over nuclear annihilation and banned all nuclear powered vessels from our sovereign shores despite the ANZUS alliance and the punishment we got in return but we held our heads high and as Lange said that he was proud to be in a government that never went to Washington to grovel !!!
    Even Clark declared that our independence should never be at risk. Shame then about our trade agreements.

  6. Well China, Russia and Cuba are still on the UN human rights commission, so perhaps we should stop funding the UN.

    Maybe Trump was right after all?

Comments are closed.