Strategic Trade Policy

The CER Treaty Unifying the Australian and NZ Economies (1975-82)

The CER Treaty unified two previously deeply protectionist OECD countries and was widely considered the ‘gold standard’ of its day in terms of deep integration models. I designed much of its architecture and was the (sole) author of the first Heads of Agreement that paved the way for the final Treaty. The CER has been a huge success – it was as much an instrument of fundamental domestic policy reform (in a more market oriented direction) as a trade agreement.

The Uruguay Round

As NZ’s chief negotiator in the Uruguay Round, I led the NZ effort to bring operationally effective rules into World Trade in Agriculture.  I was also one of the principal architects of the TPRM and the Understanding on Safeguards.

The Doha Round

Although the Doha Round is now on life support, at the point it had political momentum I was Chair of the Rules Negotiating Group (Anti-dumping, CVD, subsidies including fishing subsidies and Regional Trade Agreements) and later, Chair of the Agriculture Negotiating Group. As Chair, shortly before I left diplomacy to become a politician, I delivered the July 2004 ‘Framework Agreement’ on Agriculture - with the strong support of Bob Zeollick and Pascal Lamy. At the time, it was assumed this would pave the way for a successful conclusion to the Doha Development Agenda.

TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership)

I am the author of the key strategic think-piece sent to the then Singaporean Trade (later Foreign) Minister, George Yeo of ‘P5’. This led to P4 which the United States used as the political foundation stone of TPP. This is why I was ex officio the Legal Depository (Administrator) of TPP for seven years.

The Chinese Economic Triangle

I played a key role in the political launch of the first FTA China concluded with an OECD country (the China/NZ FTA), by proposing a solution to the key Chinese ‘ask’ (market economy status), given my background as Chair of the anti-dumping negotiations and panellist on several anti-dumping cases. I then (as Minister of Trade) negotiated the Hong Kong-NZ FTA in 2010. In a politically complicated strategy, and working discreetly with Minister Wang Yi (now China’s Foreign Minister but was then the Minister Responsible for the Taiwan Affairs Office) constructed the first ever FTA (by another name – Economic Cooperation Agreement) with Taiwan. As a consequence, NZ is the first country in the world to have a comprehensive Free Trade Area with the three constituent parts (and separate WTO Members) of the Chinese Economic Triangle. Our exports have literally exploded as a consequence.

Russia / Belarus / Kazakhstan – the Eurasian Economic Commission

As a result of writing a think piece for the then Russian Minister of Economic Development (Eva Nabiulina – now Governor of Russia’s Central Bank), I commenced negotiations to establish the EEC’s first ever FTA. In an extraordinary piece of unlucky timing, I had reached a political conclusion on all outstanding issues with then new Minister of Economic Development, Alexey Ulyukaev on the very day before the Russian take-over of the Crimea. Instead of signing the Heads of Agreement, my Government immediately suspended negotiations. It remains in abeyance until the underlying political and security issues allow Western countries like NZ to re-engage.

The Pacific Alliance

As Trade Minister, I developed a proposal to the Pacific Alliance, the Latin American outward-looking Trade Agreement, a novel strategy that would involve NZ becoming the fifth Member of the Additional Protocol to the Pacific Alliance. 

GATT and WTO Judicial Experience

I have been a panellist or a Chair of a number of disputes in the multilateral trading system, covering a range of legal jurisprudence. Deeply concerned at the loss in momentum in the WTO’s negotiating arm, I stood for Director General of the WTO in 2012 (the only developed country candidate prepared to challenge the conventional wisdom that it was the ‘turn’ of a developing country). I got into the semi-finals, but not the final cut between the (then) Brazilian WTO Ambassador and the Mexican candidate.

Climate Change

The New International Climate Change Agreement:

I am the political author of the key proposal on the Legal Form of the new Comprehensive Climate Change Agreement that came into effect in Paris 2015. This followed years of being a key facilitator of the negotiations, after the failed Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. In a landmark speech to Yale University last October, US Special Envoy Todd Stern indicated this was the only basis on which the United States could proceed. 

The Global Research Alliance on Agriculture Emissions:

I proposed at the Climate Change Ministerial Meeting in Poznan, Poland 2008, the creation of an entirely new international science initiative designed to meet the twin objectives of producing the 70% more food the planet needs by 2050 but with lower emissions (agriculture is responsible for some 14% of global emissions).  This was formalised at the FAO Ministerial Meeting in 2010. With over 50 Member Countries, it is already leading to some very promising research breakthroughs that we hope may enter the market place in 5-10 years’ time.

In recent years, in recognition of my role as a political facilitator, I have also been invited to the meetings of the Major Economies Forum (the MEF) – essentially the G20 on Climate Change – as ‘Special Observer’. The Executive Director of the IEA invited me to be a member of a High Level Advisory Board to the International Energy Agency (focussing on the politics of climate change).