One of the things that seems to worry establishment people in New Zealand is a belief that our economy is somehow very vulnerable to anything that disrupts the trade of New Zealand firms with China. It is a more-than-slightly puzzling concern, since only around 20 per cent of our exports go to China, and exports themselves aren’t an overly large share of GDP in New Zealand. For the firms involved – even if not the wider economy – there are clearly somewhat greater risks, since China has a demonstrated track record of being willing to use targeted trade sanctions for “punishment”. Those are the risks you take, as a private company, when you choose to play in that particular sandpit.
For the world economy, of course, any serious dislocation of China’s economy is a significant risk. With interest rates in most of the world not much above zero…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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