Foreign Minister Winston Peters met his American counterpart Marco Rubio this morning (NZ time). 

He’s due to speak to media about the meeting around 10am. 

Peters is keen to secure New Zealand an exemption from agricultural tariffs the Trump administration has promised to impose on imports to the US from April 2. 

Despite not having a free trade agreement with the United States (US), New Zealand trades a significant amount with the country. In the year ending March, the US became New Zealand’s second largest export market, with total exports worth $16.4 billion. 

Trade with the US is growing at an astonishing rate, largely because of impressive economic growth on the American side and a strong US dollar (something the Trump administration is keen to see to). 

Exports to the US are up 60% by value on pre-pandemic levels. 

Imports from the US, however, have fallen behind —something the Trump administration may be seen to address. In 2019, New Zealand imported $9.6b from the US, giving the relationship a trade surplus in New Zealand’s favour of about $1b. That surplus has grown to $4b in the year to December, when New Zealand imports totalled just $12b. 

Peters has had a busy few days in Washington DC - it is an intense diplomatic time in the US capital with President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreeing to a limited 30-day ceasefire after a marathon 2-hour phone call. 

Earlier in the week, Peters met President Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. 

He dined at the NZ Ambassador’s residence with Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism and Morgan Ortagus, Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East. 

Foreign Minister Winston Peters with Trump Administration officials Morgan Ortagus and Sebastian Gorka. 

Gorka is a longtime ally of Trump’s and played an active role in Trump’s first presidential campaign and was appointed as national security advisor to the President during his first administration. 

Later today he will meet Ken Martin, the recently elected Democratic national committee chairman, maintaining a longstanding convention of maintaining relationships with both sides of the American political system. 

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.