But to be clear, here is what India says: the 5000 Kiwi visas as part of our FTA are about "mobility, not migration".
Immigration and mobility of skilled manpower are two different issues altogether.
Chief stirrer Winston Peters claims the Indians were not aware of the limits placed on temporary visas – it would appear he is wrong.
Time will prove the other issue wrong, which is this petty, little scrap over the $20 billion investment.
For a country who is famous for free trade, what a sad and sorry old tale it has been to watch the latest version unfold.
It quite possibly is a reflection of the times in which we live, where a stand must be taken and the stand must be black or white, up or down, right or wrong.
Nuance is no longer a currency.
Even Chris Hipkins, who should be proud of the history of his own party's role in free trade, couldn’t help himself with his eyes-wide-open comments the day after the deal was signed. The deal he was dragged kicking and screaming into supporting, despite the fact anyone with their head screwed on really couldn’t object.
Free trade, lest we forget, and some clearly have, is about good will.
It's not a con and it's not a scam. You are not looking to get one over the person you have just done a deal with – you're on the same team.
Having negotiated around your differences, in this case dairy, you want the best for each other. You want to grow and prosper. You are looking to the other side to help you out.
Yet in the India FTA, like nothing I have seen before, a queue quickly formed full of people looking to pick holes, to make stories up, to confuse and misdirect, or to just be straight up and down racist.
In a world where Trump in particular is trying to destabilise the order of business, you would have hoped this one sailed through and that it would've got a bit more patriotism behind it than it did.
This as a nation is what we do. Free trade is our calling card.
What a weird old thing – we have among us so many who would rather watch us, and possibly revel, in our failure.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
Time will prove the other issue wrong, which is this petty, little scrap over the $20 billion investment.
For a country who is famous for free trade, what a sad and sorry old tale it has been to watch the latest version unfold.
It quite possibly is a reflection of the times in which we live, where a stand must be taken and the stand must be black or white, up or down, right or wrong.
Nuance is no longer a currency.
Even Chris Hipkins, who should be proud of the history of his own party's role in free trade, couldn’t help himself with his eyes-wide-open comments the day after the deal was signed. The deal he was dragged kicking and screaming into supporting, despite the fact anyone with their head screwed on really couldn’t object.
Free trade, lest we forget, and some clearly have, is about good will.
It's not a con and it's not a scam. You are not looking to get one over the person you have just done a deal with – you're on the same team.
Having negotiated around your differences, in this case dairy, you want the best for each other. You want to grow and prosper. You are looking to the other side to help you out.
Yet in the India FTA, like nothing I have seen before, a queue quickly formed full of people looking to pick holes, to make stories up, to confuse and misdirect, or to just be straight up and down racist.
In a world where Trump in particular is trying to destabilise the order of business, you would have hoped this one sailed through and that it would've got a bit more patriotism behind it than it did.
This as a nation is what we do. Free trade is our calling card.
What a weird old thing – we have among us so many who would rather watch us, and possibly revel, in our failure.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
4 comments:
What so many miss in these free trade discussions is that it’s only nz being free….every one else is subsidising their various industries while providing cheap power because they’re not simultaneously signed up to emissions schemes that strangle their manufacturing.
Trump saw it and put a stop to it.
India has the following (that we don’t)
Slavery, nuclear power, coal power, no emissions reduction requirements or regulations, lax food safety regulations, widespread corruption of regulators, child labour, no minimum wage requirements and lower business taxes….shall I go on?
While Indian manufacturers and primary producers can pull the aforementioned economic levers NZ businesses cannot.
I’m all for free trade but it’s not free trade when the playing fields aren’t level.
(China has all of the above too.)
Nz’ers are chumps in this deal - and we’ve only got our own selves to blame because we let our own holier than thou moralistic over realistic expectations take over our country
The more "mobility" a visa has, the more likely it is to be in the category where it is illegal for the employer to pay kiwisaver. What steps were taken to prevent the practice of avoiding hiring citizens to reduce costs becoming widespread and entrenched?
And how many Free Trade Agreements have included visas anyway?
Mike might think discussion around a $20B 'investment' petty, but for each man woman and child in NZ that's $4,000 - an amount far exceeding stated benefits of this deal. There should be a law against people of low IQ even saying the word "billion" as they can have no concept of it at all.
As far as I can see it is a trade deal; there’s nothing free in this world so that word can be left out of the deal - India wouldn’t consider it unless it suited them. Some of our exporters will probably be better off as intended. Quite why immigration and UNDRIP are in there as well puzzles me. There must be more to that oddity than meets the eye.
Post a Comment
Thank you for joining the discussion. Breaking Views welcomes respectful contributions that enrich the debate. Please ensure your comments are not defamatory, derogatory or disruptive. We appreciate your cooperation.