'Opportunity blown': Winston Peters signals reset in foreign policy

It has been more than 80 years since New Zealand began negotiations for a free trade deal with the United States.

And the wait continues as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, in Washington DC this week to attend the NATO summit, hopes to secure a bilateral meeting rather than a pull-aside to talk trade with the Americans.

But first, Luxon must convince President Joe Biden that once again, Aotearoa is good for business and that a free trade pact will benefit both countries.

New Zealand signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union on 9 July 2023 in Brussels. The pact came into effect on 1 May 2024 with immediate wins for kiwifruit, apple and onion growers.

Duties are removed on 91 per cent of New Zealand's goods exports to the EU, rising to 97 per cent after seven years.

Watch Vaovasamanaia Winston Peters' full interview below.

New Zealand came close to sealing a free trade deal with the Americans, Deputy Prime Minister Vaovasamanaia Winston Peters told Pacific Mornings' William Terite.

In September 2019, former prime minister Jacinda Ardern met with then-US President Donald Trump to raise New Zealand's ambition for a free trade deal with the Americans.

Ardern also failed to engage the US leadership in a new economic framework with New Zealand in 2022.

She again urged the White House, this time Biden was in the Oval Office, to rejoin a sweeping trade deal - the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) - that the US quit in 2017.

The Biden administration has been reluctant to join the CPTPP, signed by 11 Indo-Pacific countries that account for 13 per cent of the global economy. Biden is concerned more American jobs will be shipped overseas.

But Biden is not the man he was in 2022. The 80-year-old is under intense pressure following his dismal performance in the presidential debate with Trump last week.

When asked if he thought Biden was the right man for the job, Vaovasamanaia told Terite, "As the Foreign Minister of New Zealand, I'll be utterly irresponsible to interfere with another country's politics, whether it be Niue, Tōkelau, or dare I say, the United States or China.

A free trade pact makes sense for both New Zealand and the United States, Christopher Luxon says, and the reasons are as much political as they are economic. Photo/supplied

"It's not my responsibility to ruin New Zealand's future chances by making a personal statement about the internal workings of another country's democracy."

But Vaovasamanaia thinks New Zealand can work effectively with a Trump administration if the former president is re-elected in November.

"Well, we did last time, circa 2007, 2020, he [Trump] did last time," the 79-year-old NZ First Leader told Terite.

"But after all the preparation, trying to get a free trade deal, Trump turned around to his staff….now Ardern, was in there, in the room with him.

"Trump turned around and said to his staff in front of Ardern and all these New Zealanders who were there - well, why on earth not? Words to that effect.

"We were on the cusp of getting a free trade deal right then and the opportunity, in my view, was blown.

"So, there we go. Starting all over again. We've been trying since 1939. That's a long wait. It’s a long way to travel to try and get a free trade deal. But we got there that close and I was so sad that inexperience blew the chance."

Vaovasamanaia Winston Peters has visited about a dozen Pacific island nations since he was appointed New Zealand's top diplomat in December. Photo/Matt Manukuo

He says the coalition government wants to resume and renew the Pacific reset strategy with greater intensity.

Since he was appointed Foreign Minister in December - his third stretch - Vaovasamanaia has met with leaders of Fiji, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Sāmoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands, Nauru, and Niue.

"To reconnect as fast as possible. In the Covid and post-Covid era, a huge gap sort of developed or a void developed because of a minister, who didn't want the job first of all.

"I'm clear about that. I'm not making a criticism about the previous minister, other than to say she didn't want the job and it shouldn’t have been forced on her.

"But a gap, a vacuum and volumes of concern developed as a consequence. And so when we got the job back, I thought we gotta get on the road and give it our all to make the reconnection.

“I'm also taking cross-party delegations with me, Labour and ACT, the Greens and National, four different parties are on the road at the same time, imaging to the island countries that we're not split on this matter. That we are a country that wants to be a great neighbour, your most reliable partner in the Pacific.

“And the only way you can do that in our world, in our psychology, the Pacific psychology is face to face.”

Winston Peters receives a gift from Nauru's Foreign Minister Lionel Aingimea during last week's visit to the Pacific island nation. Photo/Nauru government

Vaovasamanaia's comments have not gone down well with Labour's deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni who told Terite she's "disappointed" at his claims that Ardern and her government had ruined a free trade deal with the US.

"I don't agree with that characterisation at all. I certainly wasn't in some of the conversations he might have been in. It's interesting though, because our working relationship on foreign affairs and trade was pretty good during the three years we were in government with him.

"It's disappointing that he's coming out and saying these things now. There have been attempts over decades to get a trade deal with the US and consecutively governments have not been able to secure that. It's not easy and Winston knows that better than anyone else."

Sepuloni also took a dig at Vaovasamanaia's comments that Labour forced the foreign affairs role on Nanaia Mahuta.

She said it was not the case, adding that Mahuta took it up and she took it up with rigour.

"She did an amazing job on the international stage for us. And again, it's disappointing that we've got a senior Foreign Affairs Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, making these statements.

"He's very good on the Pacific regional stuff and we worked really well on him and so I'd never take that away or deny that that's the case. But these types of statements are really unnecessary."

The NATO summit ends on Friday.

Vaovasamanaia is expected back in the Pacific later this year to attend the 50th anniversary of New Zealand realm nation Niue in October.