Ryan Bridge: Our free trade ideology is under threat

You know how we're a free trade country?

It’s our thing.

We export, we earn, we sell, we get richer.

And we want open supply chains and free movement of goods across borders, etc., etc.

Well, today Trump and Xi of China are finally signing that deal—or at least the framework of a deal—to bring an end to this war.

This should, in theory, benefit both of them. The region. And us. That's a good thing.

We're also likely to sell our dairy consumer brands to the French today, in a deal worth $4 billion. That's a good thing.

Yesterday, Westpac released some research—they reckon our GDP wasn’t actually that bad in June.
They revised down their estimate from a 0.9% contraction to just 0.1%.

They say it all came down to an accounting glitch related to the closure of the Marsden Point oil refinery.

In all of these stories, two ideologies are playing out. Are we a free trade, open-the-door, globalist sort of country?

Or are we the Winston Peters, protectionist, don’t-sell-your-milk-brands, keep-Marsden-Point-open type of place?

Are we New Zealand First?

Because the more countries out there protecting themselves, the stronger the argument becomes for us doing the same.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.