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Is Boorish our poster boy now? Why have we been given such a good trade deal? Where’s the catch? Will there be an account later in the mail (held in a fist)?
Jagged jigsaw?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/454064/geoffrey-miller-geopolitics-behind-nz-uk-free-trade-deal…And New Zealand’s pending free trade deal with the EU – still a work in progress, but now very much an inevitability – would be a further piece in the puzzle.
The EU released its own Indo-Pacific strategy in September, under which the bloc explicitly listed an FTA with New Zealand as a goal….
Indeed, it’s not inconceivable that the CPTPP – which began in 2005 as the “P4” deal between New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei and Chile – could eventually end up as a Western-led bloc that includes the UK, EU and US – as well as the original member countries around the Pacific Rim.
This possibility explains why China submitted its own application to join the CPTPP – the day after the Aukus deal was announced.
For now, New Zealand’s free trade deal with the UK might be about building back butter – but it could end up being more about Beijing,…
…In fact, a British government analysis found that the deal would at best be only very slightly positive and could even end up reducing the size of the UK economy by -0.01 percent of GDP.
Gains to the economy from the Australia FTA, while also marginal, were at least predicted to be universally positive.
Why would Boris Johnson sign up the UK to what his own government predicts will be a bad deal?…
…But the deal is also part of a wider geopolitical jigsaw puzzle.
In March, Britain announced a “tilt to the Indo-Pacific” in a much-heralded, post-Brexit review of its foreign and defence policy….
The recent high-profile tour of the region by the UK’s Carrier Strike Group – including the HMS Queen Elizabeth – was one immediate and very pointed implementation of the new strategy.
*Geoffrey Miller is the Democracy Project’s international analyst and writes on current New Zealand foreign policy and related geopolitical issues. He has lived in Germany and the Middle East and is a fluent speaker of German and Arabic.
Food security is what the non EEC brits need and get.
Ditto their Australian trade deal.
Hence more interest in military deployments down under keeping trade lanes open.
Environment is what we should think about when we have our vaccination levels up. The antivaxxers will be actually going green.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/454139/dust-days-plague-town-on-bank-of-nz-s-most-sediment-laden-river
The imbalances experienced today are on the back of past actions, she said, referring in part to the burning of the Tapuwaeroa Valley by colonial families in the 1800s.
Fire tore through native bush, turning the sky black for months.
The Waiapu River has the highest suspended sediment yield of any river in New Zealand, according to a 2011 study. Each year 35 million tonnes of soil flow out from the river to the sea.
It is attributed to the region’s natural geology and the impact of decades of unsustainable land-use practices.
Manu Caddie, who lives about 10km from Ruatoria, said he doesn’t cop the dust at home, but has seen it and has caught wind of the problems it poses for some.
…says early warning systems are used for dust storms in other parts of the world. “It’s an annual problem that’s getting worse,” he said.
That’s what long-time residents are saying anyway, Caddie said, but it has not been thoroughly monitored so they do not know for sure.
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