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Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research
More in New Zealand Back Free Trade with China
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Support for a free trade agreement with China has increased in New Zealand, according to a poll by DigiPoll published in the New Zealand Herald. 49.1 per cent of respondents are in favour of striking a bilateral deal with the Asian country, up 4.4 points since March.
Labour party leader Helen Clark has acted as New Zealand’s prime minister since December 1999. In the September 2005 ballot, Labour elected 50 lawmakers to the 121-seat House of Representatives, and assembled a coalition government with the Progressives. United Future and New Zealand First agreed to support the administration in confidence and supply votes for three years.
China is New Zealand’s third-largest commerce partner. Yearly trade between the two countries is calculated at around $6 billion U.S.
On Apr. 12, Clark defended the deal, saying, "The FTA we have signed removed tariffs on 96 per cent of our goods going into China over time. That’s estimated to benefit us by $180 million U.S. to $280 million U.S. a year. (...) It is in all our interests that China is involved in rules-based multilateralism. The commitment China has made to New Zealand, and in its World Trade Organization accession agreement, shows that it is serious about that too."
As part of the free trade agreement, New Zealand agreed to eliminate all tariffs on Chinese goods by 2016, while China will charge no duty on close to a third of imports coming from New Zealand by the end of this year.
Polling Data
Do you support or oppose New Zealand signing a free trade deal with China?
|
Apr. 2008 |
Mar. 2008 |
|
|
Support |
49.1% |
44.7% |
|
Oppose |
32.7% |
32.4% |
|
Not sure |
18.2% |
22.9% |
Source: DigiPoll / New Zealand Herald
Methodology: Interviews to 769 New Zealand eligible voters, conducted from Apr. 5 to Apr. 26, 2008. Margin of error is 3.6 per cent.