China trade boosts NZ's Apec surplus

Photo: Stephen Jaquiery
Photo: Stephen Jaquiery
New Zealand has a $4billion surplus with the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) group, largely underpinned by a $3billion surplus with China fuelled by dairying and tourism receipts.

New Zealand's two-way trade with the Apec nations reached $102billion for the year ended September, having exported $53billion worth of goods and services to Apec, and imported $49billion of goods, data from Statistics New Zealand's international statistics manager Tehseen Islam said.

"Most of our surplus with Apec countries is due to our $3billion surplus with China.

"This is mainly due to New Zealand's exports of dairy products to China, and spending by visitors from China in New Zealand,'' Mr Islam said

"Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing economic region in the world,'' he said.

During the past decade, New Zealand's two-way trade with Apec has grown $31billion and what was a $2.6 billion deficit was now a $4billion surplus.

Dairy products were the largest export to the combined Apec nations.

New Zealand exported $9billion worth of milk powder, butter, and cheese to Apec countries for the year - $2billion short of the $11billion high exported in the September 2014 year, he said.

On the imports side of the ledger, vehicles lead the way. New Zealand's main imports from Apec were vehicles, machinery, and equipment.

"New Zealand imports a large amount of cars and trucks from Japan, Thailand, the US, and South Korea, all of which are Apec nations,'' Mr Islam said.

New Zealand imported $2billion worth of electrical machinery and equipment from China and nearly $4billion worth of mechanical machinery and equipment from China, the US and Japan combined.

Travel spending also contributed to the $4billion trade surplus with the Apec nations.

Mr Islam said visitors and students from the Apec nations pumped $9billion into the New Zealand economy, through exports of travel services, mainly by visitors from Australia, China, and the US.

Conversely, spending by New Zealanders visiting Apec nations totalled $4 billion, with personal travel accounting for $3billion of this.

"The majority of New Zealanders' personal travel spending was in Australia, followed by the US,'' Mr Islam said.

Visitors from the US added $1billion to the New Zealand economy, while New Zealand visitors added $531million to the US economy.

Talks are still under way between 11 of the 21 Apec countries on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

 

The top five*

Trading partners
Australia, China, European Union, United States, Japan.

Exports
Milk powder, butter and cheese, meat and edible offal, logs, wood and wood articles, fruit, preparations of milk, cereals, flour and starch

Imports
Travel services, business travel services, education travel services, other personal travel, transportation services.

* For the year to September

SOURCE: SNZ

 

simon.hartley@odt.co.nz

 

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