By Brierley Penn
It is difficult to believe that we have been in D.C. for just 48 hours with the amount that has been packed in since our arrival. Last night, following a day spent recovering from jet lag and exploring the sights of the city, we were hosted at the US Institute of Peace for the Forum’s opening ceremony. While the New Zealanders were blown away by the incredible building, our
American counterparts were more enthralled by the fantastic kapa haka performance.
The speeches were an interesting introduction to the conference, with a heavy emphasis on moving the US-NZ relationship past the 1980s sitting somewhat at odds with the fact that this history was a key theme in a number of the speeches. As the American Future Partner representative who gave the final speech of the night put it, “We [as the youth representatives at the forum] weren’t even born in 1984.” Following the close of the Forum, groups split off to explore the Washington nightlife – the rooftop and multi-storey bars definitely put Auckland nightlife a little to shame.
An early start kicked off the conference, with an introductory speech from Murray McCully, and an interview session with Robert Zoellick, former President of the World Bank (see separate article for more details).
The conference then split into a range of panel discussions. I chose to attend the Agriculture session and then the Innovation and Technology group – both of which proved to be wise choices. The Agriculture session particularly emphasised the size of the industry’s potential, although the general sentiment seemed to be that greater specificity and focus on the mechanics of the US-NZ agricultural relationship could have benefitted the discussion.
Following a classic American lunch (very large and including turkey), we resumed with a panel discussion delivered by six former US Trade Representatives, providing a unique insight into America’s views on the TPP specifically. There was a lot of discussion surrounding the role that Japan can now play in the partnership, and the theme appeared to be that, while progress will be slow in formulating such an agreement, a successful partnership definitely lies on the horizon.
The ‘official’ section of the day concluded with speeches from two US Congressman who are friends of the US-NZ Council, giving way for the networking and business card swapping to begin. We’re headed off soon to the NZ Embassy for a Taste of New Zealand event – where I am rather excited for some New Zealand food and wine after two days of burgers, tacos, fries and copious amounts of mayonnaise.