John McKinnon, New Zealand's ambassador
New Zealand Ambassador John McKinnon said that his country is particularly interested in how free trade and climate change are reflected and discussed in the annual meetings of China's top legislature and political advisory body.
McKinnon said he expects China and New Zealand to upgrade their existing free trade agreement, which was signed and took effect in 2008 to boost bilateral trade.
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[Photo/China Daily] |
New Zealand was the first developed economy to sign such an agreement with China. The New Zealand-China relationship is very strong and is characterized as a comprehensive strategic partnership as announced by President Xi Jinping and former prime minister John Key in 2014, McKinnon said.
"One of the most important ways we've been building on the partnership is to look at how to upgrade the free trade agreement. Since then, there's been a huge growth in the trade between our two countries. And that is continuing and now we are reaching new areas such as services, e-commerce and many other aspects of trade," he said.
Of the two sessions, the ambassador said: "There are two areas that are particularly of interest to us: One is to follow President Xi's speech at Davos, when he presented China's strong position on globalization, international trade and an open economy.
"These are things we very much welcome and we will be interested to see how they are reflected in Premier Li Keqiang's Government Work Report and also in the subsequent discussions at the congress."
He said the second area covers climate change. A few weeks ago, Zhang Yong, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, met with New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett in New Zealand during the first ministerial-level dialogue on climate change.
"That will be the focus of our follow-up discussions between officials and between our leaders," the ambassador said.
