NZ TradeMin O’Conner: Government backs Australia in spat with China

During the weekend, New Zealand (NZ) Trade Minister Damien O'Connor crossed wires, via Reuters, suggesting that Auckland supports Australia in the trade tussle with China. The comments rolled out ahead of Monday’s meeting between Aussie Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his NZ counterpart Jacinda Ardern for the first time in 15 months, in New Zealand.

Key comments…

"New Zealand is participating in this dispute as a third party because it raises systemic issues of importance to the effective functioning of the multilateral rules-based trading system.”

"New Zealand was not asked to join as a third party, however we have been a third party in over 60 WTO cases since 1995 and it's not unusual for us to join actions disputes when we see challenges to international trade rules."

FX implications

The news should weaken the NZD/USD reaction to China data and weigh on Antipodeans. However, the initial hour of Monday’s Asian session paid little heed to the risk-negative update.

Read: NZD/USD seesaws around 0.7250, looks to China/NZ data to extend weekly gains