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Shipping containers at the Port Newark near New York City - Source: Reuters
New Zealand is to open trade talks in Melbourne on Monday for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with the United States, Brunei, Chile, and Singapore.
It is hoped the talks could pave the way to a trade deal with the United States.
The TPP will build on the previously negotiated P4 trade agreement between New Zealand, Brunei, Chile, and Singapore with the first round of talks to expand the agreement with the inclusion of the US, Australia, Peru and Vietnam.
The first round of negotiations to expand the TPP to was to take place a year ago, but the US postponed the first set of talks at the last minute, in the wake of the President Barack Obama's inauguration.
Now the US is ready to start five days of talks in Melbourne.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has described the TPP as "our most important trade negotiation, working towards a free-trade agreement with the United States".
He says FTAs open up tremendous opportunities.
Key says the proof in the pudding of FTAs show through as exports to China are up 62% since the deal was signed in 2008.
The government has already appointed former prime minister and World Trade Organisation (WTO) boss Mike Moore as ambassador to Washington, with instructions that a US free trade deal is a priority.
Free access to the US market has long been a holy grail for New Zealand exporters of meat and milk, but they have already run into warning shots from their rivals in the US, concerned about a potential surge of New Zealand produce onto their domestic market.
US dairy farmers are already pleading for protection from Fonterra.
The US uses tariffs and quotas to keep out foreign dairy products - New Zealand has a quota of only 151 tonnes of butter a year - but Fonterra has built a profitable trade in milkpowders, including milk protein concentrates which sell for high prices.
US dairy farmers are just beginning to recover from nearly two years of severe losses and commodity-price swings, with the help of taxpayer-funded subsidies last year.
They fear Fonterra's co-operative structure and control of about
88% of New Zealand's milkflows would help it undercut them on
price.
