June 20, 2024
More trade staff needed on ground
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Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand has to up its game in trade promotion.
He’s just back from another round of visits to overseas markets.
He says Singapore, which has a similar size population, puts two and a half times more people in the field supporting trade than to New Zealand.
“We’re not putting the efforts in and the consequence of that is you haven’t got enough help in the local market. It’s a sad thing but successive governments have done it and when you try to say ‘yu’ve got to do better than that,’ it’s ‘yes, yes, three bags full.’ The rubber’s not meeting the road because we haven’t got any rubber in the first place. So we’re out there doing as much as we can, we’ve saved the Foreign Affairs presence, the Trade i
Mr Peters says,
He’s protected Foreign Affairs and Trade and Enterprise positions from the current wave of job cuts, but they need to be expanded in future to reach new places and broaden trading relationships in old places.