Winston Peters: Foreign Affairs Minister on what Donald Trump's trade agenda means for New Zealand

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves worrying about Donald Trump's trade agenda. 

Trump has soared to victory in the US, nailing a historic second presidential term. 

He campaigned on introducing up to 20 percent tariffs on global imports - and 60 percent on Chinese imports.

Peters says we have a strong case to make ourselves an exception, due to the fairness of our market. 

"We pay first-world wages in first-world conditions, we're not an exploitative country that you could bring those sorts of tariffs against without having evidence."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
World leaders, including from our own government, have sent their
congratulations to Donald Trump on him winning the US election
last night. The US is, of course one of our
country's most important partners. Winston Peters is our Foreign Affairs minister.
Hey Winston, Good afternoon, Winston. The thing that we're most
worried about with the Trump presidency, obviously is his threat
to introduce twenty percent tariffs on imports, including ours. Do

(00:20):
you think he'll actually do that?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I think a lot of people are prematurely panicking here
without understanding that we have got to wait till the
twentieth of January next year for him to be inaugurated.
In that time, we've got a lot of work to
do with the incoming administration. And also we have a
very very strong case to make ourselves an exception because

(00:44):
of the fairness of our market, the fact that we
pay first world wages in first world conditions, and so
we are not an exploit out of country that you
could bring those sorts of tariffs against without having evidence.
And so in our case, we're not overly confident, but
we've got ourselves ready. We hit the ground running the
moment this administration was elected. We were prepared for it.

(01:06):
We prepared for it in terms of our Washington base
and also our base around the United States, in terms
of people that we have contacts with in the Republican Party.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Do you think he can be talked out of this?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, he's not being talked into at this point in time.
He's just made it about some countries and hopefully he
has not made at about ours. And often he talks
about what is unfair in the world. And if you
can see some countries who pay third world or fourth
world wages and shocking conditions, then you're talking about something else.
In the New Zealand's case, we are a first World
democracy with the First War standards of living in terms

(01:42):
of our aspirations for the working people of our country,
and that will stand us in good stead.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Do you think that he will end the Ukraine War
like he says he will?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Look, Uh, just go back and ask yourself, how come
between sixteen to how sixteen twenty twenty we had none
of this wars, none of these wars going on. Sometimes
wars to that happened because countries think they can get
away with it, and sadly that's where we are at now.
But you know, I don't want to get involved in
that other to say that weakness off meets to the
kind of circumstances we're living.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Look, you're preaching to the choir here. I totally agree
with you on that, But I'm interested in how he
gets settlement in the main thing. I mean, does he
force fladomyir Zelenski to give up a whole bunch of
land to putin in order for Putin to stop the fighting.
And if that's what he does, are we okay with that?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah? Look, I'm not going to get into that controversial
debate because that's outside of our area. Other than to
say it's a small state. We do think that rule
of law matters, and the Russians preached a serious view
in Charter when they did that, even though they're on
the Security Council, and we made that position very clear
in our statement to the United Nations not so longer.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Now on the Middle Eastern War. Speaking to somebody in
the know yesterday who's an experienced diplomat who said that
one of the possibilities with Trump and the Middle Eastern
War is that he actually just comes comes in sorts
out around once and for all by making it okay
for Israel to strike their nuclear sites and that's it.
I mean, it's risky, it's really risky, but at least
it ends. What do you think is that likely?

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well, I'm amazed at the number of people have come
experts after the election and have gave you a note,
good advice before before it happened. But the real issue
is here is the economy, and he could have a
profound effect upon that and see a change in their behavior.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yes, do we have a good relationship do you think
with the people? I mean, I noticed you put Rosemary
Banks back into the Washington situation for us, right in
the embassy over there. So do we have a good
relationship do you think with the people who are likely
to be surrounded by Trump? Surrounded surrounding Trump?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Well, you know, with a lot of them. Mere So,
I just spoke to our former ambassador to New Zealand
who's also our consul in Oregon Port and Oregon, Swimdell.
I spoke to him a long time today and he's
going to Washington very shorty. He's got a lot of content. Actually,
You've got also people that you know work very close
to Trump, whereas actually almost daily organizers, these are people

(04:08):
that we're back in contact with now, as we always
had to get ready for any change that was likely
to happen and been more likely as the months went by.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Winston, I want to speak to you just really quickly
as the leader of New Zealand first, and I hope
you won't take offense at this at this particular comparison,
but you strike me as being probably the closest to
Trump in New Zealand, not in terms of being offensive
or anything like that, but just kind of understanding the
popular mood and appealing to the popular mood. Right. Do
you think that what Trump has just done is this

(04:40):
just a unique individual who's managed to win or is
this a movement around the world of people who want
to be listened to by populists.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Look what happened here, and it was astonishing in the
campaign because it happened to the Republican Party as well.
That's so many people high up in the organizations are
both those parties lot of touch with real American voters.
So those people out there who hadn't registered for to
vote Safe for thirty five years, we're registering for the
first time. These are people who got to be listened to.

(05:10):
These are people who are concerned about the massive flowing
from the border and the number of criminals and murderers
are coming in, and they were not responding to them
in the heads of the Republican and the Democratic Party.
But Trump was now, whether you like or don't like someone,
the reality is, in the end, democracy is about the
ordinary person, the people in their numbers who do all

(05:31):
the jobs, sometimes two or three jobs a week to
make a country work. And if you take your ear
and your eye off them, then you deserve to lose.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, Winston, thank you very much. Couldn't agree with you
more on that, actually, Winston Peter's Foreign Affairs Minister. For
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