Jacinda Ardern. -Bernama filepic
BEIJING: China and New Zealand signed agreements on eliminating double taxation and tax avoidance as the two countries look to shore up relations following a series of incidents that cast doubt on the strength of their economic partnership.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was welcomed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday morning as she began a daylong visit to China. She is scheduled to meet with President Xi Jinping later in the afternoon.
The two sides also signed memorandums of understanding on agricultural cooperation, bilateral financial dialogue and science and research cooperation, the Chinese government announced.
Ardern’s first visit to China as prime minister comes as her global profile grows in the wake of a mass shooting -- modern New Zealand’s worst -- that left 50 people dead and prompted her to overhaul the South Pacific nation’s gun laws. A longer visit had been planned but shortened to just a day following the attack, she told reporters last week.
New Zealand has been pushing to upgrade its free-trade agreement with China for some time, something Ardern was expected to raise during her visit. The renegotiation began two years ago. New Zealand has also been a focus of Xi’s growing campaign for influence in traditional bastions of U.S. support in Asia-Pacific.
Warming Up
China’s Foreign Ministry said last week that it hopes her visit strengthens bilateral trust and expands cooperation between the two countries. New Zealand’s opposition politicians have called for a re-warming of relations with China in order to avoid severe economic consequences.
Her visit “sends a positive signal that top officials from both countries are staying in contact to solve major disputes. Communication in the tourism and culture sectors is getting back to normal,” Wang Jiazheng, chief representative of the Guangdong Economic and Trade Representative Office in New Zealand, told China’s state-backed Global Times this weekend.
China is New Zealand’s most important trading partner, with upwards of NZ$27 billion ($19 billion) in two-way trade last year. Despite their economic ties, a series of incidents this year has triggered concerns of friction between the two countries, after Ardern’s government blocked embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. from its next-generation 5G wireless network.
Along with neighboring Australia, New Zealand is a member of the Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing partnership that includes the U.S., U.K. and Canada and looks at trends including global concerns about China’s activities, particularly espionage and cyber penetration.
In comments made to reporters before her meetings in Beijing and streamed by New Zealand’s 1NEWS, Ardern said reporting that Huawei had been banned in her country was untrue.
“It will be helpful for me to explain that process and the fact that there has been some misreporting,” she said, adding that New Zealand makes it decisions independently of other Five Eyes nations. “I expect that some of the issues we have talked about here -- cyber security -- will come up,” she said.
“We hope that we can aspire to the greatest common denominator regarding each others’ interests and that when each sides businesses invest in each other’s businesses, they can enjoy a fair, transparent convenient environment,” Li told Ardern in the Great Hall.
Ardern responded by calling China “one of our most important and far reaching relationships,” and saying that New Zealand is “committed to advancing our ties.”
Delays in Ardern’s China trip -- originally planned for late last year -- fueled concerns, along with the postponed launch of the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism, claims that some exports faced clearance delays at Chinese ports and a Chinese media report that tourists were canceling visits to New Zealand. - Bloomberg
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