Hong Kong-New Zealand Closer Economic Partnership

Initial Analysis of the Bilateral Trade and Economic Relationship as Background to a Possible "Closer Economic Partnership" Agreement

Chapter Three: The Hong Kong - New Zealand Trading Relationship

• The Hong Kong Perspective
• The New Zealand Perspective
• New Zealand's Exports to Hong Kong
• New Zealand's Imports from Hong Kong

The historical pattern of trade with Hong Kong both as a source of imports for New Zealand and as an export destination is set out in Table 5.

As Table 5 shows, New Zealand's exports to Hong Kong have grown significantly over the past 30 years. In 2000, New Zealand had a trade surplus of some $601.5 million. It will be an important objective of any CEP with Hong Kong to ensure that two way export growth continues.

Table 6 sets out the current trading relationship, although certain data for Hong Kong are not currently available.

The Hong Kong Perspective

In recent years, New Zealand's share of Hong Kong's exports has dropped significantly. In 1974, New Zealand was the destination for 1.07 percent of Hong Kong's exports. Since then, New Zealand's contribution has steadily declined through to the early 1990s, although the most recent data suggest some reversal of that decline. New Zealand currently accounts for about 0.2 percent of Hong Kong's exports. From Hong Kong's perspective, this means that New Zealand is of similar significance as Nepal and Turkey are to New Zealand. However, this is a little misleading, as New Zealand ranked 21st as an import supplier to Hong Kong

Table 5: New Zealand Trade with Hong Kong (NZ$ millions)

	Exports to HK	Imports from HK
June Years
1970	4.5	19
1975	16.8	36.5
1980	78.3	70.8
December Years
1985	180.0	158.8
1990	228.3	191.0
1995	624.5	227.7
1998	593.3	156.8
1999	595.0	178.8
2000	772.3	170.8

Source: Statistics New Zealand data

Table 6: Hong Kong - New Zealand Trade (NZ$ Millions, %)

(December years)	1998	1999	2000
Exports to HK	593.30	595.00	772.3
% of NZ exports	2.72	2.64	2.76
% of HK imports	0.22	N/A	N/A
Imports from HK (CIF)	156.30	178.80	170.8
% of NZ imports	0.67	0.66	0.56
% of HK exports	0.17	N/A	N/A
Surplus	437.00	416.20	601.5

Source: Statistics New Zealand data and United Nations Statistical Handbook.

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The New Zealand Perspective

Hong Kong remains one of New Zealand's most important export destinations, ranking from 6th to 8th over the last four years. As a source of imports, it is less important, with a global ranking of around 22nd. Consequently, New Zealand has shown a significant surplus on merchandise trade for the last 6).

New Zealand's Exports to Hong Kong

Table 7 shows the main exports from New Zealand to Hong Kong for the last three June years. Fisheries products continue to dominate New Zealand's export profile, with an 17 percent trade share by value. Dairy products have risen significantly in recent years and now rank just behind seafoods. Paper products have declined over the period shown, while most other

Table 7: NZ-Exports to Hong Kong at HS 2 Level (NZ$ millions)

				% of total
HS Description	Dec-98	Dec-99	Dec-00	exports
03 Seafood	89.92	120.05	132.05	17.09%
04 Dairy	45.29	95.78	125.10	16.10%
85 Electrical machinery	67.83	35.32	73.77	9.50%
02 Meat	56.08	49.56	56.06	7.20%
41 Hides and skins	26.05	32.50	54.91	7.10%
16 Prepared meat	34.92	30.46	37.04	4.79%
44 Wood	30.34	35.04	36.96	4.78%
05 Other animal products	17.88	18.71	35.09	4.54%
48 Paper	52.36	37.97	33.97	4.39%
08 Fruit	28.24	26.18	30.74	3.98%

Source: Statistics New Zealand data

New Zealand's Imports from Hong Kong

The major categories of imports from Hong Kong are detailed in Table 8, ranked by the monetary value for the December 2000 year. In contrast with Hong Kong's exports to the world as a whole, machinery and electrical equipment respectively are New Zealand's main imports, although apparel and knitted goods

Table 8: NZ - Imports from Hong Kong at HS 2 Level (NZ$ millions)

				% of total
HS Description	Dec-98	Dec-99	Dec-00	Imports
85 Electrical Machinery	24.17	42.48	24.42	14.29%
84 Machinery	18.96	20.06	21.71	12.70%
49 Books, etc	17.13	20.48	17.20	10.00%
62 Apparel	9.14	8.00	9.36	5.48%
90 Medical goods	8.68	8.90	8.33	4.87%
61 Knitted goods	6.58	6.05	6.47	3.78%
91 Clocks and Watches	6.72	7.74	6.39	3.74%
95 Toys	5.08	4.58	4.88	2.85%
39 Plastics	3.92	3.96	4.81	2.81%
42 Leather goods	2.70	2.40	3.49	2.04%

Source: Statistics New Zealand data

Back to NZ-Hong Kong CEP index

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