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Speaker 1: So flagship mom, and I guess you could say in

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Speaker 1: our relationship with the European Union. Today we've got EU

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Speaker 1: officials in the country meeting with our political and business

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Speaker 1: leaders for the first of a joint business summit. Now

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Speaker 1: the focus is on maximizing our FDA strengthening bilateral tires.

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Speaker 1: Lawrence Meredith is the EU ambassador to this country and

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Speaker 1: is with us. Lawrence, morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning mate. Great to be back on the shriff.

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Speaker 1: Given our relationship. This is sort of odd that we

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Speaker 1: haven't done this before, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Well, we've just got a new free trade agreement, been

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Speaker 2: in fourth almost eighteen months, so we thought this was

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Speaker 2: the best opportunity to turbo burst it.

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Speaker 1: Your sints of that agreement and what's changed materially from

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Speaker 1: the EU's point of.

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Speaker 2: View, Well, I think it's a big change because, as

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Speaker 2: you know, in a moment of trade turbulence, their opinion

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Speaker 2: has actually taken trade tariffs off trade with New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: and that's been a big boost for New Zealand exporters,

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Speaker 2: with an extra billion dollars in the first twelve months.

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Speaker 2: That's twenty eight percent up.

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Speaker 1: Do you see it? I mean, I look at the

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Speaker 1: China Deal as one of the original free trade deals,

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Speaker 1: of course, and that has grown with this country exponentially

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Speaker 1: over the years. Do you have high expectations of major

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Speaker 1: growth between US and the EU?

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Speaker 2: Yes? Absolutely, and that's why we're having this summit and

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Speaker 2: we're going to be looking at five big issues. Of

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Speaker 2: course the agri agri tech piece, but also infrastructure building,

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Speaker 2: other Prime Minister's infrastructure investments some in March, and investing

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Speaker 2: in innovation in areas like clean tech, deep tech in

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Speaker 2: AI and also aerospace and defense, which are phenomenal here

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: How on the radar is a place like New Zealand

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Speaker 1: for a place like the EU.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a really high up because if you look

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Speaker 2: at President vonder Lyon's political guidelines when she came into office,

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Speaker 2: it's one of only four trusted partners namechecked along with Australia,

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Speaker 2: Japan and Career. So definitely on our radar.

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Speaker 1: Good at tangibles coming out of this or is this

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Speaker 1: just to get together and you know, let's see how

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Speaker 1: it goes.

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Speaker 2: No, absolutely, and you'll have seen that there's a big deal.

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Speaker 2: We've got Nile Brown from Dawn meets in Ireland coming

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Speaker 2: across US fresh from investing in Alliance, so this and

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Speaker 2: we've got the infrastructure giants of Vans and We Build

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Speaker 2: and also Bestic Whatpack who are building the christ Church Stadium.

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Speaker 2: So we've got some big players over from Europe.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Enjoy yourself, Appreciate it very much, Lawrence Meredith,

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Speaker 1: who's the EU investador to this particular country.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio