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Speaker 1: The United States Business Summit is on today. Here could

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Speaker 1: be interesting trade, security, foreign policy as you would expect,

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Speaker 1: that's the order of the day. The Aukland Business Chamber

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Speaker 1: of CEO Simon Bridges is whether Simon, how are you hey.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Mike? And not could be interesting? It will be

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Speaker 2: interesting Mike by definition, good sprouk.

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Speaker 1: Are you going to talk? How many times in the

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Speaker 1: day will the word Trump be used? Do you think?

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Speaker 2: You know this is New Zealand's It wouldn't surprise me

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Speaker 2: if people at a level find ways and euphemisms for that.

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Speaker 2: But I mean I think, you know, let's think about it.

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Speaker 2: It couldn't be at a level A better time for

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Speaker 2: a summit like this is hugely consequential. I mean, he

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Speaker 2: won big, he's got the Congress, as you say, he

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Speaker 2: can put in w w F stars if he wants,

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Speaker 2: and the geopolitics is immense. So I mean what I'm

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Speaker 2: looking forward to seeing is really how the government plays that.

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Speaker 2: We've got Prime Minister Laxin and Trade Minister Todd McCay

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Speaker 2: coming along. How they going to play it on tariffs?

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Speaker 2: And you know, I don't think it's good enough and say, well,

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Speaker 2: we need to wait and see. Actually, you know, if

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Speaker 2: you think about it, Winston was born for a time

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Speaker 2: such as this. I mean, this is the guy who

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Speaker 2: has had a policy platform that's broadly similar to what

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Speaker 2: we see from a new administration. Looks safer and probably

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Speaker 2: more sanitized. But you know, can he can Todd McLay,

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Speaker 2: who's a widely operator, get over there and really work

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Speaker 2: the angles on tariffs or at least if not get

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Speaker 2: rid of them, you know, get us favorable treatment on

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Speaker 2: these things. But these are sort of things I think

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Speaker 2: we'll be able to delve into and get offense off.

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Speaker 1: Are you trepidacious in general? I mean, how much of

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Speaker 1: what you think might happen will happen from America's point

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Speaker 1: of view?

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Speaker 2: Well, I hope, I hope you know by now I'm

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Speaker 2: something of a contrarian. So you know, I think that

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Speaker 2: the general view in New Zealand is, look, this is

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Speaker 2: this is absolutely terrible. It's catastrophe. Could there be anything

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Speaker 2: worse than they can be? Wrong? When I talk about

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Speaker 2: tariffs and multi lateralism and how President Trump plays a

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Speaker 2: bunch of things, you know, there's definitely concerns to be

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Speaker 2: to be had there. But I think it's going to

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Speaker 2: be rather maybe you know glass half well, I think

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Speaker 2: it can be rather better than that. As I say,

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Speaker 2: I think New Zealand personally is good at riding the

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Speaker 2: waves and working the angles. And I think what's also true,

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Speaker 2: just think about this. When Trump got in last time,

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Speaker 2: the first thing he did in trade was he ripped

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Speaker 2: up CPTPP, which is our one chance of getting an

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Speaker 2: FTA with them. But if you what happened in New

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Speaker 2: Zealand American trade, well, it flourished actually from a bunch

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Speaker 2: of primary sectors that we'd always done well, and we

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Speaker 2: were in rockets. We're in a bunch of other eurospace

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Speaker 2: and technology deg text stuff and we've seen the numbers

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Speaker 2: grow actually almost exponentially. So personally, I think we can

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Speaker 2: have some optimism about this. I think what's true is

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Speaker 2: that it can definitely be rather better than the critics

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand may think.

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Speaker 1: I like your style, you go well, I'm enjoy it.

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Speaker 1: Simon bridges Auckland, a business chamber ce own.

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

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