Trade

We should not be content for other countries to beat us on attracting investment. If we do not liberalise our FDI regime, New Zealanders will miss out.

Brexit might not just mean Brexit but a surge in trade between the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

The CETA fiasco has seriously diminished the EU’s reputation as an organisation to do business with. Any other country thinking about doing trade deals with the EU will now think twice.

It is too simplistic to only warn of populism. Populist messages may be distasteful, ill-informed or just plain wrong. But they are only symptoms of an underlying malaise of Western democracies.

Free trade needs an institutional framework that helps with the practicalities of trade across borders – particularly for when things go wrong.

Ben Bernanke’s analysis of Germany’s exports problem is correct but it yields the wrong conclusions.

There are at least three obstacles that are in the way of a free trade agreement with the Europeans. First, Europe has other priorities at the moment. Second, the EU remains an organisation with protectionist instincts. And third, we may have more to gain from a deal with the EU than vice versa.

After more than 200 years, the case for free trade remains as strong as in Adam Smith’s times. But the so-called free trade agreements such as the trans-Atlantic deal are not the best way to promote this ideal. The result of such initiatives may well be a step in the opposite direction.