Vehicles lead the way in imports
New Zealand’s two-way trade with APEC reached $102 billion for the year ended September 2017, Stats NZ said today, with vehicles leading the way in imports. APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, forum involves 21 Pacific Rim member economies, including Australia, China, and the United States – three of our main trading partners. It is Asia-Pacific's main economic forum where a number of trade agreements are reached. "Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing economic region in the world," international statistics manager Tehseen Islam said. "Over the last decade, New Zealand's two-way trade with APEC has grown $31 billion, and a $2.6 billion deficit is now a $4 billion surplus." Talks regarding the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership are currently underway at APEC. Eleven of the 21 APEC countries are in the trade talks. In the September 2017 year, New Zealand had a $4 billion surplus with APEC, most of this down to the$3 billion surplus with China – we exported $53 billion worth of goods and services to APEC, and imported $49 billion. New Zealand’s main imports from APEC are vehicles, machinery, and equipment. New Zealand imports a large amount of cars and trucks from Japan, Thailand, the US, and South Korea, all of which are APEC nations. New Zealand imported $2 billion worth of electrical machinery and equipment from China in the September 2017 year, and nearly $4 billion worth of mechanical machinery and equipment from China, the US, and Japan combined. Travel spending also contributed to the trade surplus. Visitors from APEC nations provided $9 billion to the New Zealand economy in the September 2017 year through exports of travel services, mainly by visitors from Australia, China, and the US.