Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on Chris Luxon's four-day trip to India

The economy, trade, and talks will be top-of-mind as the Prime Minister lands in India today.

Christopher Luxon's being joined by a large business and community delegations, alongside three Ministers - as he aims to strengthen the two countries' relationships.

The PM's due to meet India's Prime Minister and pitch for increased trade and business opportunities.

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls unpacks the likliehood of a trade deal being reached between both nations.

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Let's talk local politics. Now I'm joining my News Talk
ZB political editor Jason Walls. Good morning, Good morning, How
are you very good? Thank you? As I mentioned, a
very big week for the government this week, the Prime
Minister is on his way to India and what he
is hoping to do is to return with at least
a time frame in line to work towards a free

(00:34):
trade agreement. What do you think your chances are, Jason.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, I think something he's left the door open so wide,
something so vague that I think it's almost impossible that
he'll come back without something like that. He hasn't agreed
to and promise getting a free trade agreement during this trip,
which would have been next to impossible. I mean, India
has been such a hard not to crack for so long.
Their protectionism around their dairy is so hard, especially with

(01:00):
somewhere like New Zealand where we put a lot of
our stock in the exporting of our dairy. So him
saying he's going to come home with a time frame
to maybe talk about how we can start to think
about getting some sort of free trade agreement off the line.
It's basically a nothing burger because of course that's what
they're already doing. There's probably already a time frame. But
that's not to say that it's a bad thing. I

(01:20):
mean you need to be able to go to these
countries and try. India is massive, it's got a huge economy.
So it's the right decision from the Prime Minister to
go over there, and probably the right decision not to
promise getting a free trade agreement across the line this
time because it's simply not going to happen. These things
do take time, and it's the right thing to do
to be able to try. The right thing to do

(01:41):
is to try and get one across the line, given
how I said, the economy is so massive.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Winston Peters is also in Washington, DC and New York
this week for meetings. Also pretty important when it comes
to trade and export.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Well, from one protectionist economy to the other, I mean
India to the US. We're looking to get some exemptions
to some agricultural tariffs over there, as well as some
steel and aluminium tariffs as well. Now, the likes of
Australia haven't had much luck with that, and other countries
around the world haven't had much luck either. So it's
hard to think about New Zealand and thinking, well, why

(02:16):
are we going to get an exemption when the others don't.
But from the conversations I've been having with some pretty
people that are in the know about trade agreements and
tariffs and whatnot, the Trump administration really likes it when
we have a trade balance, that is, we they trade
is about as much as they import with a country,
and New Zealand is actually quite balanced when it comes

(02:37):
to its trade with the US. So maybe an exemption
for New Zealand isn't actually off the table because it's not,
from Trump's perspective, altogether unfair that trading relationship. But still
it's going to be a really, really hard ask, and
Winston Peter's a foreign minister, is meeting with the likes
of Marc or Rubio and other top politicians and lawmakers

(02:57):
over in the US to really try and work some
on the count If.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
We are not exempt, when could we expeact tariffs to
kick off?

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Well, it's I mean, that's the question is because we
just don't know, because everything that Trump does seems to
be in a tweet or in some sort of off
the cuff comment with absolutely no details. So the last
time I talked to the Prime Minister about this, I
mean yeah, he was obviously a little bit worried, but said, listen,
we just don't have any details on anything yet, so
I just can't give a straight answer.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Thank you so much, Jason. I know you'll be keeping
a close eye on this throughout the week.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.