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New Zealand wants a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, but Prime Minister Helen Clark says she won't give up her country's 20-year nuclear ships ban to get one.
Her remarks drew fire from an opposition party, which said Clark's anti-American stance has made impossible hopes of an FTA like the one Australia now has with Washington.
"We remain ready to enter negotiations with the United States as the mutual benefits of an FTA between us are clear," Clark said in an address to this year's first sitting of parliament.
"Beyond trade ... New Zealanders overall have taken pride in seeing their country's foreign policy express their values and our country's pride in its independence of mind.
"Nuclear-free status won't be gone by lunchtime with a Labour-led government," she said, referring to a remark opposition National party leader Don Brash is alleged to have made to some visiting US senators last year.
The right-wing ACT party said Clark was so anti-American she couldn't even acknowledge the "huge" US contribution to tsunami relief in Asia.
"It's all very well to say, 'we stand ready to enter negotiations with the United States'. Prime Minister Helen Clark will be standing ready until hell freezes over," ACT leader Rodney Hide told parliament.
Hide said Clark also did not mention the weekend's Iraq elections because that would acknowledge the achievement of US-led coalition forces in that country.
New Zealand, unlike Australia, did not sent combat troops to Iraq and opposed the US-led invasion.
Wellington's ban on nuclear-armed and powered ships angered Washington in the mid-1980s when the Cold War was still playing out. Enshrined in law, it effectively ended New Zealand's alliance with the United States.
On trade with Australia, the prime minister said efforts would be directed towards progressing the two nations' Closer Economic Relations (CER)towards a single economic market.
"Our two governments have a big work agenda towards that end," Clark said.
But ACT foreign affairs and trade spokesman Ken Shirley said when a trade conflict threatened its FTA with the United States, Australia would be forced to sacrifice the New Zealand market.
"In the worst-case scenario, CER could wither on the vine with New Zealand consigned to the status of an irrelevant outpost," Shirley said.
"Our
senseless ban on the visit of nuclear-propelled vessels must be
lifted. Only then can we be on a common footing with
Australia."
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