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In Their Own Words: Luxon V Peters On US Tariffs
Explainer: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has decried a "real media beat-up" surrounding his spat with Foreign Minister Winston Peters over the country's response to the United States' tariffs.
What follows is a timeline of the relevant comments, allowing readers to judge for themselves.
Thursday, 10 April - 8am: Luxon delivers speech to Wellington Chamber of Commerce
"New Zealand will continue to work with like-minded countries to promote free trade as a path to prosperity and explore the role of the CPTPP in strengthening that vision. One possibility is that members of the CPTPP and the European Union work together to champion rules-based trade and make specific commitments on how that support plays out in practice.
"As prime minister, I have a responsibility to do everything I can to both bolster the existing rules-based order and to further strengthen New Zealand's position offshore... it's why I will be on the phone later today to world leaders comparing notes on world trade, and testing what we can do together to buttress the rules-based trading system.
"Free trade works. It lifts incomes. It creates jobs. It builds partnerships. And it secures peace. I think that's worth fighting for - and I'm up for that fight."
Thursday, 10 April - 1.55pm: Peters responds to media questions on his way into Parliament's Question Time
Q: What do you think of the idea that the prime minister spoke about this morning: of getting the CPTPP countries and Europe together and kind of building a trading bloc?
A: This is all very premature.
...
Q: So you don't think he will have any success in trying to promote that idea?
A: Well, look, we're trying to sort out this other thing with America and China's trade war, and we're rushing off with solutions. Let's find out what happened there first.
Q: Did the prime minister not consult you before he made that speech?
A: Next question.
Q: When you talk about people who should have held their counsel and hung tight, does that extend to the prime minister?
A: I just answered your question. You've got the full answer, and now you're trying to turn it into controversy. See you, guys.
Thursday, 10 April - 3pm: Peters responds to media questions on his way out of Parliament's Question Time
Q: Did the prime minister discuss with you the idea of trying to get the CPTPP countries and EU countries together in order to formulate some sort of joint response to the US action?
A: No.
Q: Why hasn't he discussed that with you?
A: Well, why don't you ask him?
Q: Would you expect to have that discussed with you - given you're the foreign minister?
A: The fact is that I've taken the stance that experience matters. In this case, wait until we see what emerges with the tariff war that's going on. It'll come to a resolution much quicker than people think. And as in the last 24 hours, we've already seen the beginnings of that. So let's not panic here.
Q: Is this naivety from the prime minister?
A: No, you go and ask the prime minister why he did that. I'm telling you what my position is.
Q: Right, and -
A: All you're trying to do is try to get some sort of difference between me and the prime minister.
...
Q: What's wrong with the idea of trying to engage with other leaders?
A: Well, what would you talk about? What's the tariff regime going to be in the end? Do we know what that's going to be? No, if we don't know what it's going to be, what would you actually talk about? Think about it.
Q: Would you discourage him from having these talks?
A: No, no, no. I'm asking you to ask some of those questions yourself. I'm not the person you should be asking. I'm telling you the logic and rationale behind my behaviour, and those are questions I answer. I don't answer for other people. For God's sake, start doing your job properly.
Q: Aren't you a representative of this government though?
A:
Friday, 11 April - 1.30pm: Luxon responds to media questions in Hamilton
Q: On trade, Winston Peters says your phone calls with world leaders yesterday were premature. How do you respond to that?
A: I don't think that's... the context of the question that was asked to him on the tiles.
But what I'd just say to you is: I gave a pretty broad-ranging speech yesterday on trade which was appropriate given the week that we've been experiencing. And over the course of yesterday, I was doing three things, really.
One was reaching out to key bilateral partners for New Zealand to say: what more could we be doing together in a world where we have a like-minded approach to trade? Why don't we- what more can we be doing to turn this up?
Secondly, to sort of understand how they have been interpreting the events of the last week and what that means for them and their economies.
And then thirdly, making the case that we should be reaffirming the principles of free trade together. So whether that's in an ASEAN bloc, whether it's in a CPTPP bloc. I also spoke to the president of the European Union last night, and our conversation was: if you think about the 27 countries in the EU, if you think about the CPTPP countries, how do we not introduce new impediments to trade moving around the world?
We will continue to work constructively with the US. The US is obviously 13 percent of global trade, but there are also other trading blocs that actually just are like-minded, and we'll continue to keep working hard there.
Friday, 11 April - 3.30pm: Peters responds to RNZ questions in Tonga
Q: The prime minister made calls overnight with some world leaders, partly to reaffirm the principles of free trade and discuss what more can be done in response to the current economic situation globally. What do you think about this?
A: Look, markets lose their nerve. Share market speculators lose their nerve. Politicians should not lose their nerve, and that's my advice. There's no need to react at this point in time. Let's first find out what we're dealing with. Let the dust settle in - that's been my advocacy from the day this matter came up with the Trump tariffs. Our job is to be ultra-careful, ultra-forward-thinking in the interests of, guess what, the New Zealand economy. That's what matters, not our egos. So my advice to politicians is: tone down, wait till you see and know what's going on.
Q: Have you been in touch with the prime minister's office?
A: No, he didn't check it out when he made that speech and made those phone calls. And so I hope that he'll get my message and he'll call me next time.
Sunday, 13 April - 9am: Peters delivers a speech in Hawai'i
"In recent weeks, the tendency to hype up a debate about how international trade works into a black-and-white, polarising issue has been unfortunate and misguided. The use of military language - of a "trade war", of the need to "fight", of the imperative to form alliances in order to oppose the actions of one country - has at times come across as hysterical and short-sighted.
"For a small country like New Zealand, when events are moving fast and changing day-by-day, the best course is almost always to be cautious, to be modest, to be pragmatic, and to be practical. To wait for the dust to settle before making choices we may later regret..
...
"We will continue to promote careful, pragmatic, quiet dialogue - aimed at deescalation and practical problem solving, rather than premature posturing."
Monday, 14 April - 7.35am: Luxon answers questions on NewstalkZB
Q: Is Winston Peters right in saying you're a bit hysterical?
A: I think actually - I don't know where - that's a real media beat-up, that story. Because, actually, if you think about what he's actually saying, we're saying the same thing, which is that: we've been pretty cool, calm and collected in responding to this thing.
I think commentators would admit that. My calls to leaders are doing exactly the same thing: where are you at? How are you responding? It's important everyone has cool heads. The second thing is they're good conversations, because it's like, what more can we and should we be doing in a bilateral sense?
And the third thing is that I'm making sure that the blocs, like the EU and the CPTPP and ASEAN, what we don't want them doing is tit-for-tat tariffs between each other. You know, we want to make sure that they are affirming the rules operating within dispute mechanisms that we've got in place. We don't need the pressure going the other way, across the different blocs - and on the US, I just say, look, we've got a positive, constructive relationship with the US, and we'll continue to do so.
Monday, 14 April - 7.50am: Luxon answers questions on RNZ Morning Report
Q: Doesn't look good for you and the foreign minister, deputy prime minister to be publicly at odds over a crucial issue like this, does it?
A: Well, we're not actually, we're fully aligned... we both agree that tariffs and trade wars are bad. We both think cool, calm and collected approaches are what is needed from ourselves and from our partners. We'll continue to build out our US relationship, and we're strengthening our bilateral ones. So from our side, whether it's Winston and I, whether it's the five ministers dealing with it, and frankly, our whole cabinet, we're very aligned on our approach.
Q: Okay, let's delve into that a little more. Because firstly, on Friday, in terms of you making the calls to several world leaders, Mr Peters had said that you should call him next time. So that's not really aligned, is it?
A: Well, I mean, I just say to you, my ministers are fully empowered. They're big people and big jobs. They're empowered to communicate and make decisions as they see fit. And they don't expect them to share speeches with me, and I certainly don't expect to share my speeches with them, either. But I just say to you that we've talked about this as a cabinet. We are very, very focused on it, and I appreciate the media may want to beat this into something that it isn't.
Q: No, no. I just want to push back on that, because he has criticised you for making those calls without talking to him first. So that is not alignment. That's a disagreement which has been expressed in public.
A: I have relationships with leaders around the world that I've built, obviously over the last 16 months or so, and all we're doing is exactly what we have said we would do.
Tuesday, 15 April - 5.30pm: Peters responds to RNZ questions in Hawai'i
Q: The prime minister has called your comments on Friday about him calling you first before going and having meetings with world leaders and your speech -
A: You tell the press gallery back home that I'm in Hawai'i now dealing with our offshore issues, and when I get back home, I'll deal with their domestic issues. Put it that way... and tell your producers that, as well, from me personally.
Q: Are you on the same page on the tariffs?
A:
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