Thread: New Zealand hires former Trump campaign director to lobby for business visas

New Zealand hires former Trump campaign director to lobby for business visas


By Charlotte Greenfield
Reuters January 29, 2017
1 Comment

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand has hired a former campaign field director for U.S. President Donald Trump to help its push for a long-sought visa that would give the Pacific nation's business employees easier access to the United States.

New Zealand's embassy in Washington hired boutique firm Sonoran Policy Group's Stuart Jolly to lobby the U.S. administration for access to E1 and E2 business and investor visas, according to documents filed with a U.S. government database last week.

Jolly acted as Trump's national campaign field director during the Republican primaries and joined the super PAC Great America, which backed Trump, as its national advisor in May.

"We are excited to help facilitate interactions with the U.S. Congress and incoming administration in order to ensure increased investment and trade between our two nations," Sonoran Policy Group CEO Christian Bourge said in a letter to New Zealand's deputy ambassador sent on Jan. 11. The letter was included in the U.S. government's Foreign Agents Registration Act database on Jan. 25.

The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not immediately available for comment.

The E1 and E2 immigration programs have long been a priority for New Zealand as they would allow companies operating in the United States access to streamlined visas for their staff in line with neighboring Australia and around 50 other countries.

"It's been the number one focus of the embassy over there," said Catherine Beard, executive director of industry group Export NZ, adding that access to the visa program was generally granted after reaching a free trade agreement.

"We've been trying for years to negotiate a free trade agreement with the U.S. and we've never been high enough on their radar," she said.

The NZ embassy's contract with Sonoran runs for two months from Jan. 9 at a cost of $25,000 a month, according to the documents.

New Zealand expressed disappointment when Trump last week pulled the United States out of a 12-nation trade pact, the Trans Pacific Partnership, and is now looking to strike a bilateral trade deal.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/zealand-h...--finance.html

Why don't we have a trade deal with New Zealand?? They're a nice country that probably needs a lot of stuff we sell. Maybe we trade, I'm sure we do, but just do the tariff thing, the old fashioned way.

New Zealand free-trade agreements

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

New Zealand is party to several free-trade agreements (FTAs) worldwide.

Contents

1History

• 2Free Trade Agreements in force
• 3Proposed Free Trade Agreements
• 4See also
• 5References
• 6External links

History[edit]

The Economy of New Zealand is a market economy which is greatly dependent on international trade, mainly with Australia, the United States of America, China and Japan.

It is strongly dependent on tourism and agricultural exports, and has only small manufacturing and high-tech components. Economic free-market reforms of the last decades have removed many barriers to foreign investment, and the World Bank has praised New Zealand as being the most business-friendly country in the world (citation needed). Regional and bilateral free trade agreements have become an important part of New Zealand's international trade policy. New Zealand has used free trade agreements also known as closer economic partnerships to liberalise trade between economies. A Closer Economic Partnership Agreement with Thailand was negotiated in 2004 and implemented in 2005. Negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with Chile, Brunei and Singapore known as the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership were concluded in 2005. Negotiations for further agreements with Malaysia were undertaken in 2006, but failed to reach a conclusion. The historic FTA with China was signed in Beijing in April 2008.^[1]

On 27 February 2009 New Zealand and its close partner Australia signed a Free Trade Agreement with the ASEAN regional block of 10 countries. It is estimated that an FTA with ASEAN would boost aggregate GDP across the 12 countries by more than US$48 billion over the period 2000–2020 with an additional US$3.4 billion to New Zealand alone.^[2][3]

Free Trade Agreements in force[edit]

Here is a list of free trade agreements of which New Zealand is part. In parentheses, the abbreviation, if applicable, membership if not stated before, and the date of coming into force are to be seen.

• Australia: Closer Economic Relations (1983)^[4]
• China: New Zealand–China Free Trade Agreement (2008)^[5]
• Thailand: New Zealand and Thailand Closer Economic Partnership (2005)^[6]
• Singapore: New Zealand and Singapore Closer Economic Partnership (2001)^[7]
• Brunei: Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (2005)^[8]
• Chile: Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (2005)
• Singapore: Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (2005) – Auxiliary to New Zealand and Singapore Closer Economic Partnership
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations: – negotiating along with Australia since (2004)^[9][10][11]
• Malaysia: Malaysia–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement announced on 2 June 2009^[12][13]
• Hong Kong: New Zealand–Hong Kong, China Closer Economic Partnership (2011)^[14][15]
• Taiwan: Agreement between New Zealand and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu on Economic Cooperation (2013)^[16][17]

Proposed Free Trade Agreements[edit]

New Zealand is negotiating bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements with the following blocs and countries:

• Mercosur: New Zealand-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement – negotiating since 2010 ^[18][19][20]
• The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, a multilateral trade agreement involving 4 countries with which New Zealand has existing trade agreements – Malaysia, Brunei, Chile, Singapore, and Australia – and nations with which New Zealand does not have an existing FTA:
  
  • United States: New Zealand–United States Free Trade Agreement^[8]
  • Peru: Negotiating alongside the United States, Australia and Vietnam to join the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership^[21][22]
  • Vietnam: Negotiating alongside the United States, Australia and Peru to join the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership^[21]
  
  
• Japan: Conducting feasibility study as of (14 May 2008)^[23]
• Gulf Cooperation Council: (2006/07)^[24]
• India India–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement – negotiating since 2007 with the establishment of a JSG (Joint Study Group) looking at the feasibility of an Indian-NZ FTA.^[25]
• Russia Russia-Kazakhstan-Belarus Free Trade Agreement – negotiating since 2010^[26]
• Kazakhstan Russia-Kazakhstan-Belarus New Zealand Free Trade Agreement – negotiating since 2010^[26]
• Belarus Russia-Kazakhstan-Belarus Free Trade Agreement – negotiating since 2010^[26]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_free-trade_agreements

Yeah, no trade agreement with New Zealand. Maye now we will have one with New Zealand.

New Zealand | United States Trade Representative

https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/southeast-asia-pacific/new-zealand

New Zealand and the United States are partners in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations...

That's canceled so we need a nice little bi-lateral agreement with New Zealand.

Economy of New Zealand - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_New_Zealand

United States - New Zealand's main exports to the United States are beef, dairy ... and the US is a major source of tourists coming to New Zealand...

China, New Zealand pledge to support for free trade