Lol. Still trying to palm off your new trade theory as free trade eh goose 🙂

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/82236152/john-key-praises-engaging-meeting-with-indonesia-president-confident-of-end-to-beef-restrictions

So Key thinks an issue about NZ beef exports may be resolved without needing a WTO ruling:

“”On the basis of the conversations we’ve had today, I feel exceedingly confident that we’re going to get there: what ‘there’ actually looks like, we’ll see in the fullness of time, but there’s very good momentum.”

Widodo highlighted Indonesia’s interest in receiving breeding cattle from New Zealand, and Key said he was keen to see progress.

“It’s a matter of the protocols being finalised, it’s really just making sure they adhere to all the things we expect of countries where we do export cattle.

“It has to be for breeding purposes, we have to have confidence in the way the animals are treated after they get off the boat, all of those things, but we’re confident we’re making progress there.”

New Zealand already had a history of exporting live cattle and sheep for breeding, and any deal with Indonesia would be relatively small compared to the country’s overall herd numbers, Key said.”

Oh well, so we do now help the Indonesians to produce their beef themselves, not needing much in the way of imports in the future. It is a bit like, the barn has burned down, so we may as well sell the construction plans for others to build something similar along the lines for themselves, to get a bit of income.

More selling of the furniture and the carpet from our feet, to “pay” for our debt fueled living.

And read the nonsense about human rights and so, it is laughable, what this man does “achieve”, yet our MSM think he is so “great”, and lick his shoes, so that they shine and shine.

Yes, Gosman, we understand “Free” trade more than you realise.

“Free” trade means shifting production from a First World nation (eg; Aotearoa), to a Third World or developing nation (eg; People’s Republic of China); exploiting cheap labour to produce goods; then exporting/importing them back to our country to sell to the public – some of whom are unemployed.

Why are they unemployed you might ask? (Go on, ask.)

Actually, I’ll tell you.

Because the shoes, shirts, and socks we used to produce here in our country (and which employed thousands of people, keeping them of the dole) is now produced elsewhjere.

In return for (sometimes) cheaper goods, we have higher unemployment than we ever had pre-1984.

There you go, Gosman. That is “Free” trade.

Except,it’s not “free” at all.

We have to pay for it. Through welfare to unemployed workers who no longer have jobs. All because some poor bugger working in a sweat shop in Pakistan, China, Vietnam, etc, is now earning $1 a day doing work that a New Zealander did, for minimum wage or better.

There y’go. Unfree Trade 101, made simple for neo-liberals who hold an unrealistically naive view of the world. (And which I grew out of thirty years ago.)

We know more about free trade than Gosman may know about free (informed) expression.

I tell you how he will react. When time will come for making firm and clear decisions and commitments, he will no longer be leader and politically active. He will in any case within a few years be on a one way ticket to Honolulu and then off on another plane or ferry to his luxury home in Hawaii, to write his memoirs.

Once he feels he has done his job selling us out, he will no longer care about the flag or anything else to do with New Zealand Aotearoa, he will simply d a runner, and not even bother doing anything else anymore. Sitting on the fence is what he has done on many important issues since he took office, while being very active looking after his own clientele and voter lobbies, enriching them more and while on the other hand disowning many and whipping the beneficiaries and others he does not care about.

It will be the ones that come after Mr Key who will be faced with the hard and unpleasant decisions to make.

Well put there Neil. Absolutely agree with the contents of your post.

Funny isn’t it, that everyone else knows about the Chinese trade threats, re investigating substandard steel imported from China, yet John Key and his Trade Minister Todd McLay “have not been informed of the issue?” Heads in sand … lies … subterfuge … slipping and sliding around an issue … comes to mind here!

Wonder what their reaction will be when a construction collapses as a result of the inferior steel used, possibly maiming and killing NZers? The usual old statement “we didn’t know” will not wash in such a disastrous scenario!

NZ produces steel, so let’s go back to doing it the Kiwi way, with much better standards.

@ MIKE IN AUCKLAND … you post …

“Prepare for more pressure on Little Ol Niu Zilliland, when the tensions will increase over the South China Sea issue, which a UN Tribunal recently decided on, saying China has no special interests there, and basically supporting the position of the Philippines.”

And when the hostilities in the area begin and I think this will be the case eventually, is it possible John Key will “show some guts” and support one side? Or we will we see him sitting on the fence here, seeing the issue from both sides? Be interesting to see how he reacts.

Shit is Fletcher’s now 80% owned overseas Jack how terrible, This government are driving us all out of business now by hollowing out our industrial base till we are nothing any more!!! What the hell are they doing to us all?

Good points there Bruce.100%

” Second, that we would do well and wisely to learn the lesson obliquely presented here about the sheer folly of hoping that the happy-clappy good-will of New Zealand to such countries as we may enter into world-first trade deals with are necessarily shared by our erstwhile ‘partners’. International relations and especially transnational economic flows are a cut-throat, realpolitik driven business. States look out and after their own interests – nobody else views themselves as owing us a living, and we should perhaps come to expect this sort of slipshod perfidious conduct from those we do business with. ”

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The naive Kiwi.

And those Kiwi’s who have something to gain from these so called ‘ Free Trade Deals’….

If anybody thinks for one minute that the rest of the world gives a damn about our national interests they display that same small town myopia born out of ignorance of the outside world. I’ve never supported ‘ Free Trade Deals’.

Because that is the dogma expounded by the neo liberal.

Globalism , pan continental , trans national – call it what you will. It always bodes ill winds to the concept of the sovereign national interest.

The naive concept that a small agrarian nation can compete against an economy that uses strength of numbers or technological superiority and still trust the other partner to play fair belongs in kindergartens – not geopolitical world trading.

Notice that those advocates for ‘ Free Trade’ are the same that have something to gain from it – at the expense of their own country.

The neo liberal.

Notice also that the same also resorts to using the word ‘racists’ if their plans receive opposition – a cheap , simplistic , emotive and very crude defense of what amounts to selling off of their own country’s best interests. Thus they are treasonous by nature and motive.

It is not ‘ racist’ to drive a hard bargain ( as they purport to do them selves with their own country’s people with their neo liberal attitudes – hypocrites ! ) . And strangely – why is it racist according to them when it is to do with the Chinese but not the Americans?

Ahhh… but then they pull out the old ‘ communist protectionist ‘ line.

How very convenient for them.

And convenient for us because once exposed we can nail them in their own hypocrisy and subversion’s.

And this is one area where NZ First is a flagship on international policy. There are now many who side with NZ First in standing up against the TTPA and its obvious deleterious impact on our national best interests.

The type of people ( neo liberals) who advocate our selling off of our national sovereignty for the sake of their financial gain is essentially asking us to prostitute ourselves for their personal best interests – not ours.

There was a time when these individuals and their avarice were kept in check , – precisely to prevent them from doing harm to the people of their own country. There were serious trade laws in place and if they were broken the penalty was hefty. This was one of the major victory’s for these treacherous ideologues…

That they managed, through hijacking a major party of the Left (Labour) to permeate and create an all pervasive clique of self interest lobby’s that changed NZ law to enable them to plunder the commons wealth at will.

Lobby groups such as the NZ Institute ( once the Business Round table ) heading the way for this societal / economic coup, donating heavily to politicians and their party’s in a clandestine , anonymous fashion and utilizing think tanks to reinforce govt policy .

Subversion of the Keynesian based, Social Democracy of NZ was the name of the game , … and they did a good job of it.

It is now time NZ grew up and along with rejecting these neo liberal emissary’s messages start to stand on its own two feet and drive a realistic , hard bargain in the BEST INTERESTS of this nation’s peoples , – NOT solely for those of a select few.

It is interesting with the BREXIT vote , that this new found ( or should I say underlying ) sentiment of the people of England has found expression – that the people of that nation have had enough of being dictated to , of being preached a false message of ‘ prosperity and higher wages ‘ when in fact the exact opposite is true.

And interesting as well that this may well be a another avenue for trade – that we again resume trading with our historic trading partner for export purposes.

WE ARE NOT THAT POORLY OFF that we have to endure any longer the scaremongering and fear inducing message of trading at all costs even if it means we accept substandard terms from those whose only motive for instilling that fear in the first place is to induce panic – panic that goads people to accept what in reality – was only induced for the sole benefit of those at the top ( such as the NZ Institute and their latest messenger Jennings ) to reap the benefits at the expense of the rest of us.