Carbon foot prints just went through the roof for NZ. So did the trade deficit. I am not wholly convinced that a free trade agreement with China is the best deal for NZ. Sure we get a huge market for our primary products, but in a time when we should be diversifying our industries, a flood of cheap consumer goods onto our market is not the greatest thing.
Take garlic for example: There is perfectly tasty locally grown garlic at your local Sunday market, or fruit vege stores. Yet NZ supermarkets and apparently NZ consumers deem it better to go out and by garlic grown in China, shipped here, and at some point fumigated with methyl bromide.
Not only is this ridiculously wasteful since we can quite easily grow garlic here (amongst other stuff that we will no doubt import from China). It has a huge carbon foot print, perhaps not ethically produced, and it is fumigated with a class 1 toxin.
The Labour govt has really shafted the Greens on this one. The buy kiwi campaign looks like an effort in vain compared to the effort gone into producing a deal with China. Also there has been no move on the origin of product food labelling regulations the Greens have been pushing for.
Consumers will be left with slightly more money in their pockets, but the money that has been sucked out of it is now not NZ, its in China. We will also be left with a large carbon foot print and for what?
In saying that will no doubt create unimaginable opportunities for NZ but is that what we need?
Hey derekguy, go fuck yourself.