Ryan Bridge: Our free trade ideology is under threat

You know how we're a free trade country?

It’s our thing.

We export, we earn, we sell, we get richer.

And we want open supply chains and free movement of goods across borders, etc., etc.

Well, today Trump and Xi of China are finally signing that deal—or at least the framework of a deal—to bring an end to this war.

This should, in theory, benefit both of them. The region. And us. That's a good thing.

We're also likely to sell our dairy consumer brands to the French today, in a deal worth $4 billion. That's a good thing.

Yesterday, Westpac released some research—they reckon our GDP wasn’t actually that bad in June.
They revised down their estimate from a 0.9% contraction to just 0.1%.

They say it all came down to an accounting glitch related to the closure of the Marsden Point oil refinery.

In all of these stories, two ideologies are playing out. Are we a free trade, open-the-door, globalist sort of country?

Or are we the Winston Peters, protectionist, don’t-sell-your-milk-brands, keep-Marsden-Point-open type of place?

Are we New Zealand First?

Because the more countries out there protecting themselves, the stronger the argument becomes for us doing the same.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know how, we're a big free trade country. It's
our thing. We explored a lot, we earn a lot,
we sell, we get richer. And you want open supply chains,
you want free movement of goods across borders and through
the ocean, et cetera, et cetera. We like it. It's
what we want. Well, today Trump and She of China
are finally going to sign a deal. Well we hope
that they will sign a deal or the framework of

(00:21):
a deal to finally bring an end to this trade war.
And this should in theory benefit both of them, the region,
and then by extension US. This is a good thing.
We're also today going to likely see our dairy consumer
brands sold off to the French and a deal worth
north of four billion dollars, an incredible sum of money. Also,

(00:43):
you got to say a good thing. Yesterday Westpac came
out with some research which was actually quite interesting. I
was going to mention it earlier in the program. They
reckon our GDP wasn't actually that bad in the Durne quarter,
you know the blip, you know, the horror show. They
revised down their estimate of a zero point nine percent
backwards read to just zero point one percent backwards. I know,

(01:07):
quite the revelation they reckon. It all came down to
an accounting glitch to do with the closure of Marsden
Point refinery in Northland. This was several years ago. It's
an interesting story interest dot co dot is. They go
and have a look of it, Go and have a
look at it. In all of these stories, though, there
are two ideologies playing out. Are we this free trade,

(01:27):
open the door, globalist sort of a country, or are
we the Winston Peters protections, don't sell your milk brands,
keep Marsden Point open for goodness sakes? What kind of
country are we? Are we New Zealand first, because the
more countries out there who are protecting themselves, the greater
the argument comes for us to actually do the same,

(01:50):
you know, and we are quite vulnerable those trade routes
that I spoke about, those supply chains. When they break down,
it's a bit like a computer, great thing or a
cell phone, wonderful thing. It's working and once it goes
to put you shook it. So what sort of a
country are we? We are kind of facing and grappling
with that question almost on a weekly basis. At the Moment.

(02:13):
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