By RNZ

Finance Minister Grant Robertson is hoping to discuss a possible free-trade agreement with US officials during his trip to Washington DC.

Robertson travelled to New York on one of Air New Zealand’s direct flights and will soon leave for Washington DC, to meet with senior figures in the Biden administration, and other international finance ministers.

Robertson is travelling with a New Zealand business delegation which includes representatives from a range of large and small businesses, as well as other organisations such as Ngāi Tahu and Waikato Tainui iwi.

“The big game here is to reconnect face-to-face, to learn about the American economy, particularly on the east coast of America where we haven’t had a direct flight before and there’s a lot of opportunity for New Zealand here,” Robertson told First Up.

Robertson will be meeting with the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.

Increasing US interest rates had caused the New Zealand dollar to drop slightly, Robertson said.

“We’re looking to find out from him where he sees the market going in the US, where the US economy’s going to be at, where the pressures are there around inflation, around unemployment - that’s going to have a heavy influence on the way the New Zealand economy performs over the next year or so.”

Robertson said when he travelled to Washington he would also be meeting with senior figures in the Biden administration and with other finance ministers from around the world.

He said previous talks of free trade had stalled because of high subsidies, tariffs, and protectionism in the US system.

• Finance Minister Grant Robertson is off to New York for business delegation
• Experts say Grant Robertson's business delegation to New York comes at interesting financial time

“Ultimately any free-trade agreement in the United States has to go through the Congress and that requires getting a majority of senators and house of reps members to agree with it and there’s a bit of work to do because there’s a lot of vested interests within the US system.”

But Robertson said the United States was interested in New Zealand’s transpacific partnership.