Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership

I was very pleased to read this morning that the stalled negotiations over closer economic relations with the Hong Kong Special Economic Region are to resume.  Hong Kong was due to be our third free trade partner – after Australia and Singapore.  Fears that Chinese goods would be smuggled into NZ via Hong Kong was the reason why negotiations stalled.  This now seems a bit ironic as within a couple of years New Zealand was negotiating an FTA with China.  I hope this agreement delivers something exciting on investment and services.  We look forward to working closely with the government on this negotiation.

Merry Christmas

We are paying the price for two near 30 degree days in a row down here with a much cooler overcast day today.  I actually prefer cooler Christmas days.  There is nothing worse than spending the day in the kitchen when it is hot and sunny outside. 

I see that 50 people have visited Dear John today which is more than I had expected.  Can I wish all readers a very happy Christmas.  I hope the New Year is as prosperous as possible.

As we can’t sell any wine today I may have some time to post on concerns I have about threats to free trade.  I might also share some thoughts on the science underpinning the Kyoto Protocol and our ETS.  This is not about the science of climate change and whether we humans are causing the climate to change.  Rather it is about the science used to underpin the rules.

Quite a few people have read the post yesterday about Fiji.  Whaleoil has posted a long comment which suggests that my proposed policy response won’t work.  This may well be the case but I have yet to see anyone come up with a suggestion which might work – aside from direct intervention.  And, if Whaleoil is right and the good Commodore enjoys majority support for what he is doing, then intervention won’t work either.