The Prime Minister Bill English will hold his first official meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Wellington today.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Photo: AFP
Mr Li is the second-ranked member of the Chinese government, after President Xi Jinping, and arrived in New Zealand on Sunday night, following a five-day stay in Australia.
He flew into Wellington with his wife Cheng Hong and a business delegation.
It is his first trip to New Zealand as China's Premier, having previously visited in 2009 as Vice Premier.
The Prime Minister, Bill English, who had a private dinner with Mr Li on Sunday night, said it was an important opportunity to strengthen trade between the two countries.
China was New Zealand's second-largest trading partner, with two-way trade reaching a new all-time high of $23 billion in 2016.
Mr English said he wanted to progress talks on expanding their eight-year-old free trade deal.
The first round of negotiation was due to start this year.
"There's issues in there that were hard back in 2008 when the agreement was started and are still a bit difficult now."
"But we think with a bit of positive political will we can make some progress."
So would the Prime Minister expect to confirm an upgrade during the talks?
"We'll be discussing it. It's in both our interests to find a positive way forward because as countries talk more about trade they're also keen to demonstrate that they can get things to happen," Mr English said.
There has been a strong push from the dairy industry for the upgrade to include the removal of safeguards. Currently, higher tariffs kick in on New Zealand dairy products once a certain volume is hit.
The meat industry was also fighting to gain access to China for its chilled product.
Last April, during a visit to Beijing, then Prime Minister John Key announced China had agreed to new regulations, so New Zealand could start sending chilled meat there. But that trade has yet to start.
Last week while the Mr Li was in Australia, it was announced that all meat exporters there would now have access for chilled product into China.
Mr English said he would be looking to find out where things were at for New Zealand exporters.
"Well it's something where we would like to progress and we're yet to see whether we can."
The meat industry has been lobbying to get the premium-priced product into the market for years, saying it would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the sector.
The Meat Industry Association's chief executive Tim Ritchie said it has been especially frustrating given Australia had more access.
"It would put us in a really really difficult position in a sense that, they would carve up the market for themselves. Both in terms of beef as well as sheep meat."
"It makes it very important that we get there asap, otherwise we're going to miss the boat," he said.
Stephen Jacobi from the China-New Zealand business council said New Zealand needed to push hard for greater trade access.
"We are tiny compared to them. We have a long list of demands in their market and they are patiently listening to us. But we've got to make the case. We've got to make the case about why New Zealand deserves greater attention from the Chinese."
The Labour leader Andrew Little would be meeting with Premier Li on Monday afternoon, and said trade would be his focus.
But he would also raise the South China Sea dispute, where China claims almost all of it as its own territory.
Mr Li and his wife will be welcomed with a powhiri at Government House this morning, before the official meetings at Premier House.
