China, NZ to begin FTA talks

China and New Zealand are to begin negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). The announcement was made following a meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark at the APEC summit in Chile, and comes after a feasibility study concluded "significant complementarities" exist between the two economies. The first round of formal talks could begin as early as the first week of December, reports said. In the first three quarters of 2004, trade volume between China and New Zealand grew by more than 40% year-on-year, exceeding that for the whole of 2003.