Japenese Theme Engagement Flowers

Speech: Groser - Address to 3rd Japan-NZ Partnership Forum

Hon Tim Groser
Minister of Trade
11 July 2011

Speech
Keynote Address to 3RD JAPAN-NEW ZEALAND PARTNERSHIP FORUM:
Japan and New Zealand – Overcoming Adversity,
Building the Future

Good morning

Excellency Yutaka Banno, Co Chairs Phillip Burdon and Yoshihiko Miyauchi, Hon Lianne Dalziel representing the NZ Opposition, Sir Graeme Harrison, and Gempachiro Aihara, distinguished guests

The safety briefing given earlier was a stark reminder of how we listened to a similar briefing at the start of the US NZ Council meeting earlier this year in Christchurch. We listened to that safety briefing never imagining it would become real.

I want to offer thanks for the generous financial support of the Japanese Government and people following the earthquake in Christchurch. But even more so we remember the human support. I will never forget the 66 Japanese search and rescue workers who came to New Zealand to try to get their young people and others out of the rubble. We know this ended sadly. That these same Japanese rescuers less than three weeks later would have to turnaround to go back to a far great disaster at home is something that will stick in my mind forever.

We acknowledge the huge losses and grief of the Japanese people.

Japan and New Zealand face the future against the background of the tragic coincidence of natural disasters. In an earlier discussion this morning we reflected how well chosen the theme for this Forum is: Japan and New Zealand – Overcoming Adversity, Building the Future.

It’s also important to look ahead and to explore some “new thinking” in the words of Chairman Miyauchi, and that is the purpose of this Forum.

Both countries are having to find ways to rebuild and re-grow our economies in the face of not only domestic upheaval, but a world trading system coming out of a number of years of crises and the hiatus of the Doha Round.

The world trading system has kept up remarkably well during a series of challenges over 2008/09. The flow of goods adapted well on the whole. Supply chains were stretched but not broken. Trade volume growth in Asia has been extremely rapid.

Demand from developing countries, particularly in emerging economies in Asia, has been at the heart of the recovery in global trade.

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