Trade Minister Tim Groser welcomes the arrival of over 500 negotiators from 11 countries to Round 15 of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, which runs from 3-12 December in Auckland. “TPP participants already take around 38 percent of our exports and include our largest services and international procurement markets,” says Groser. “A comprehensive 21st century agreement would provide many more opportunities to New Zealand businesses …

Foreign Minister Murray McCully confirmed  New Zealand will vote in favour of the resolution on the status of Palestine, due to go before the United Nations General Assembly this morning. But McCully says a UN resolution is “a poor substitute for direct negotiations between the two parties”. He says the primary reason for voting in favour of the resolution is …

GLOBAL MARKETS:  It was a rather lacklustre overnight session for markets. A positive start from yesterday’s sentiment that the US fiscal negotiations would be sewn up by Christmas faded as senior Democrat spokesperson, Chris van Hollen said they are “not close to a deal”. Republican US House Speaker John Boehner echoed similar sentiment, saying there had been “no substantive progress” on …