14-JUL-1993 16:37
JAMES LEE
0494536249
P.23
FOREIGN AFFAIRS SELECT
TRANSCRIPT B MR. ALASTAIR GOODLAD
COMMITTEE – 14 JULY 1993
22
CHAIRMAN:
In general, Minister, it sounds as though we are being a bit more sensitive to attitudes in Beijing than some other major exporting nations. Would you say this is appreciated in Beijing, that we are respecting their viewpoint rather more than those who are selling masses of aircraft from Paris or Washington?
MR. ALASTAIR GOODLAD:
I hope it is; it certainly should be.
CHAIRMAN:
Could I turn to broader questions of trade? We are not going to spend much time on this because we are not a trade committee and also we will be coming back to it in more detail later but the picture that emerges is of a good deal of rhetoric but the actual performance being rather unspectacular. I believe our volume of
trade with the whole PRC - a vast nation
-
is comparable with our volume of trade with New Zealand which really is rather a miserable commentary when China is about to become the world's second or third largest economy.
What is your assessment for business and commerce with China and how can we make the breakthrough so that we appear at least to be keeping up with our continental neighbours and maybe building on our undoubted knowledge of the region?