31 May 2005

China FTA Will Help "Asianise" Nz- Peters

After changing the face of New Zealand through massive unfocused immigration, Helen Clark now intends destroying our manufacturing base and wrecking our economy by signing a Free Trade Agreement with China, says the Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“China is simply using New Zealand as a political pawn to gain entry into the World Trade Organisation, and this government is so naïve that it is playing along without any thought for the impact of such a deal on our economy.

“New Zealand workers will be forced to further compete with cheap Asian labour, and the trickle of New Zealand business relocating to Asia will become a torrent.

“The fact that China will not consider including our dairy products as part of the FTA highlights just how skewed any deal will be in favour of China.”

Mr Peters said the proposed FTA was a “lose/lose” scenario for New Zealanders.

“We already lose $2 billion a year to China through unbalanced trade and a FTA would see this get substantially worse. Ultimately our economic sovereignty would be subsumed by the Chinese juggernaut.

“This begs the question of where is the CTU now the workers really need it?” asked Mr Peters.

ENDS

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