New Zealand and Mexico: strengthening a 40-year relationship: John Key comments on the advantages of closer ties between New Zealand and a key Latin American country.

• Author: Key, John
• Position: Essay

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New Zealand and Mexico are marking 40 years of diplomatic relations this year. It is a good time to reflect oil what we have achieved together, and to focus on what we can do more of in the future. There is certainly plenty of room to grow our already broad relationship, given our history of close co-operation in trade and multilateral issues.

We share similar views in many areas, from the big foreign policy challenges confronting us at the United Nations, through to our excellent relationship at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva, and the OECD in Paris. We in New Zealand also welcome Mexico's leadership in Latin America, and through forums like the G20 and APEC. Its joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations last year was enthusiastically received by New Zealand, and we were pleased to host Mexico's representatives at the last round of negotiations in Auckland in December.

Before commenting more about the trade relationship shortly, particularly the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, let me begin by making some reference to New Zealand. We are a small country of 4.4 million people. We are far away from major markets. Our closest neighbour and biggest trading partner, Australia, is about a three-hour flight away. So we are always looking outward --to new markets and new opportunities. Our geographic location and small population means our economic prosperity relies on taking what we do best to the rest of the world.

An example of that is agriculture. New Zealand is now the world's largest exporter of dairy products. Our country exports 95 per cent of its dairy production, and we are now world-leading innovators in this field. We have a liberal, free market economy, which stems from reforms started around 25 years ago.

We realised back in the 1980s that we could not grow with a closed economy supported by subsidies. Reforms from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s were wide-ranging, and set New Zealand on a pathway to play to our strengths and compete with the rest of the world. We continue to focus on economic reform. One of my government's priorities during this term in office is to grow a more competitive and productive economy.

Strong commitment

New Zealand's future lies in export-oriented growth--where we are competing with other exporters on a level playing field. That is why we are committed to top-quality, ambitious, comprehensive free trade agreements. We are also a great country to invest in, to...