Trade

Mahmoud Elkhodr, CQUniversity Australia New Zealanders finally have access to the Government’s new tracing app to help people monitor their movements as lockdown continues to ease. As businesses can now open, the NZ COVID Tracer app allows people to keep a register of the places they visit. This “digital diary” can be used to contact people if it finds they …

The Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted the tourism sectors in New Zealand and Australia and worldwide. Travel underpins the highly valuable two-way trade and investment relationship. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, New Zealand was the most popular outbound travel destination for Australians with 1.5 million visiting in 2019, and trans-Tasman travel accounting for 40% of all foreign visitors here. Likewise, …

Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, University of South Australia and James Higham, University of Otago We are hearing increasing talk about a trans-Tasman “travel bubble”, which could see Australia and New Zealand open their borders to each other. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was a special guest at Australia’s national cabinet meeting on Tuesday, which discussed the possibility of setting up a …

Hongzhi Gao, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Monica Ren, Macquarie University When it comes to our economic over-reliance on China, New Zealand consumers need look no further than their most popular big box chain, The Warehouse. The familiar “big red shed” sourced about 60% of its home brand stock from China in 2017 – and a …

Dave Heatley, Principal Advisor, Productivity Commission   “Shut the borders” is a natural first reaction to an external threat. It makes a lot of sense in the early stages of a pandemic, when those arriving at the border are more likely to be infected than those within the country. But what if that’s no longer the situation? After a country …

Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra After the COVID crisis, what will be the “new normal” in Australia’s relations with China? The short answer is, probably both worse and more complicated than pre-COVID. This week has seen a fresh low point, with the Chinese government threatening economic retribution in response to the Morrison government’s call for an independent international inquiry into …

Tony Walker, La Trobe University Australia’s relationship with China is fractured. Arguably, this is the worst moment in Sino-Australian relations since Gough Whitlam normalised ties on his election in December 1972. The Chinese saying “kill the chicken to frighten the monkey” would seem applicable in Beijing’s reaction to Australia’s push for an investigation into the operations of the World Health …

As the human and economic cost of the COVID-19 epidemic continues to reveal itself across the globe, in some quarters the blame game has already begun. Liam Finnigan suggests now is not the time to beat any drum demanding China take responsibility for the pandemic.  In what initially appeared to be a casual interview on TV3’s  AM Show, the US …

Tim McCready looks at some of the innovation emerging from New Zealand businesses in the face of adversity. Let us know what has been missed – from New Zealand and around the world. Restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 lockdown have caused some businesses to consider closing up shop for good. While some have taken this route, others have used the …

New Zealand has a challenge to broaden its Asia markets and agricultural consultant Keith Woodford asks: will New Zealand broaden its Asian perspective, or will China always dominate as a market destination? Over the last 12 years, we have seen a remarkable increase in exports to China since the Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2008. I recall in that …