Forestry stars as NZ trade with China triples over the decade

Forestry has been among the major drivers that has seen trade between New Zealand and China triple over the past decade.

 

 

New Zealand’s two-way trade with China increased more than three-fold in the past decade, according to Statistics NZ. It climbed from $8.6 billion in 2007 to $26.1 billion in the December 2017 calendar year.

 

Two-way trade is the total value of goods and services imported and exported between two countries.

 

China narrowly shifted above Australia as New Zealand’s largest trading partner for goods and services in the December 2017 year.

 

October 2018 will mark the 10-year anniversary of the New Zealand–China free trade agreement coming in to force.

 

New Zealand had a $3.6 billion goods and services trade surplus with China for the December 2017 year. This means that New Zealand earned more from our goods and services exports to China than we spent on our imports from China.

 

While the main contributor to the trade surplus was the increase in exports of milk powder, butter, and cheese to China – which was up $1.4 billion (52 percent) in 2017 to $4.1 billion – forestry was also a major contributor

 

Logs and wood were the second-largest commodity exported to China in 2017, reaching a record high of $2.5 billion, $516 million higher than in the December 2016 year.

 

Overall, the trade balance between New Zealand and all trading partners was a surplus of $4.2 billion for the December 2017 year. This means New Zealand earned $4.2 billion more from its exports of goods and services than we spent on our imports.