Goff meets US Vice President Biden at conference

new-zealand-labour-party

Mon Mar 30 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Goff meets US Vice President Biden at conference

Monday, 30 March 2009, 3:15 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

30 March 2009 Media Statement
Goff meets US Vice President Joe Biden at Progressive Governance conference

Labour leader Phil Goff met with US Vice President Joe Biden yesterday at a meeting of the Progressive Governance Summit in Vina del Mar, Chile.

Mr Goff was invited to attend the conference to speak on responses to the world economic crisis. While there he had an hour-long meeting with Mr Biden and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“The conference was a valuable opportunity to get a briefing from a senior member of the Obama Administration and a sense of the direction in which it is going,” Phil Goff said.

“As a long time member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the Vice President was exceptionally well briefed on foreign affairs issues. We discussed at length the situation in Afghanistan and issues in the broader area of the Middle East.

“Mr Biden indicated the readiness of the US to consult more broadly on foreign policy matters and emphasised the importance of the rule of law in international affairs.

“He also expressed the determination of the new administration to not only commit to stimulation of the economy – to reverse economic decline, but also to deal with its causes.

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“The financial system needed much more accountability and transparency. There was a need to save the market system from so called ‘free marketeers’ he said.

“While New Zealand’s relations with the US improved dramatically over the past nine years it is clear that in many areas the Obama Administration will bring the United States closer to positions traditionally held by New Zealand.”

Phil Goff said the conference itself focused on the forthcoming G 20 meeting in London this week, and the need for coordinated action to address the failures in the national and international financial markets which led to the current economic crisis.

“In my own comments to the conference, I also stressed the need to conclude the WTO Doha Round and for countries to resist the urge to promote protectionism. Because protection on one side provokes retaliation, the net result is less trade and greater loss of jobs and deepening recession.

“The consensus at the conference was that blind faith in the self-regulating financial market was no longer acceptable,” Phil Goff said.

The conference was attended by around 300 delegates including political leaders from Europe, North America and Latin America, think tank representatives and academics.

ENDS

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