Peters slams trade deal

The Government has been plunged into an unprecedented constitutional dilemma after Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said he was not constrained from criticising the free trade deal with China while overseas.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has been forced to turn a blind eye to Mr Peters' extraordinary position - which could see him criticising a foreign policy coup in his official capacity as foreign affairs minister - saying she is "relaxed" with his opposition to the deal.

But she has also sent a veiled threat that there could be problems if he spoke out against the deal without making clear he was speaking personally.

"He goes with a brief from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He will stick to the brief."

Mr Peters posed a constitutional quandary yesterday when he said he would tell counterparts overseas if asked that he did not support the trade agreeement and that New Zealand had not done as well as it could have.

"If I'm asked, I will tell the truth. I would have hoped we could have done much better," he said.

"Obviously, I would be in that circumstance speaking as foreign minister, and I will tell them the circumstances behind which we went into trade negotiations, with half of a free trade agreement already, trying to bargain up our half of it."

His party, NZ First, has decided to vote against the deal on several grounds, including the slow removal of Chinese tariffs and provision for 1800 temporary workers to come to New Zealand.

The deal - the first China has signed with a developed country - has been at the top of Miss Clark's foreign policy agenda for years and required major diplomatic efforts.

Under unprecedented constitutional arrangements agreed with Mr Peters after the last election, he is free to criticise the Government as NZ First leader. The party's opposition to the deal was well signalled.

But there was also an expectation that he would fob off questions about it while representing the Government overseas.

His position comes as NZ First publishes newspaper advertisements today featuring Mr Peters and spelling out its opposition to the deal and to asset sales.

National leader John Key told TVNZ today that Winston Peters could remain foreign minister in a National government if his support was needed for the party to govern.

Speaking in Beijing, Miss Clark said NZ First had made its position on trade deals with developing countries clear in post-election negotiations and Mr Peters had no responsibility for trade.

The situation was part and parcel of MMP politics. "I've run minority governments for eight and a half years, always accepting diversity. In the case of NZ First, it is not in a formal coalition with us ... What matters is that there is huge support for this within the New Zealand Parliament."

Government insiders also insisted Mr Peters was rarely asked about trade when overseas and the China deal was likely to be raised at the fringes, if at all.

But former Labour prime minister and World Trade Organisation head Mike Moore said Mr Peters' opposition made his position untenable.

"It's just laughable that our foreign minister can't vote for an important thing like this. In any other democracy, the dignified thing would be to say, `Right, I'm opposed to it, therefore I cannot serve the government'."

 - with NZPA

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