UNITED STATES NEW ZEALAND COUNCIL
(www.usnzcouncil.org)

NEW ZEALAND UNITED STATES COUNCIL
(www.nzuscouncil.com)

Media Release – 25 May 2007

American And New Zealand Leaders To Chair September US NZ Partnership Forum

High profile American and New Zealand leaders have confirmed their intention to co-chair the second United States - New Zealand Partnership Forum to be held in Auckland, 9, 10 and 11 September 2007.

Former US Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter and former Governor of Iowa Tom Vilsack will chair for the United States. Former Prime Ministers Jim Bolger and Mike Moore will chair for New Zealand.

“The Partnership Forum comes at a time when the relationship between the two countries is the ‘the strongest it has been in decades’ ” said US-NZ Council President John Mullen, quoting a recent speech by US Ambassador to New Zealand Bill McCormick. “With the high level interest the Forum is attracting on both sides, the stage is being set for an outstanding event which can help take the relationship to a new level.”

Clayton Yeutter has a distinguished record as former US Trade Representative, Secretary of Agriculture, CEO of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and President of the Republican Party National Committee. Ambassador Yeutter served as Co-Chair for the 2006 Partnership Forum in Washington DC, which helped develop a new forward momentum in the relationship.

Tom Vilsack was a highly successful Governor of Iowa from 1997 until 2007 and a former Democratic Presidential candidate. He visited New Zealand in March 2004 with a life sciences delegation which has given rise to valuable ongoing co-operation between New Zealand and Iowa in biotechnology.

Ambassador Yeutter and Governor Vilsack will be joined by former Prime Ministers Jim Bolger and Mike Moore.

Jim Bolger was Prime Minister in the period 1990-1997 and subsequently New Zealand’s Ambassador to Washington. Today Mr. Bolger is Chairman of NZ Post, Kiwibank, Trustees Executors and the World Agricultural Forum as well as of the NZ US Council.

Mike Moore was a former Trade Minister and Prime Minister of New Zealand. From 1999 to 2002 he served as Director General of the World Trade Organization and was responsible for launching the WTO’s Doha Development Agenda.

NZ US Council Executive Director Stephen Jacobi said arrangements for the Forum were progressing very well. “This coming September Auckland will be welcoming the largest and most senior American delegation of business and other opinion leaders that has ever visited New Zealand. Several New Zealand companies are joining forces under the banner of the NZ US Council to assure them of a warm welcome and an unforgettable visit”.

The two day Partnership Forum is an invitation only event that brings together leaders from the American and New Zealand governments, business and academic communities to discuss how the economic, political and personal ties between the two countries can be strengthened and developed to meet the commercial, security, energy, and environmental challenges of the Asia-Pacific region and today’s global economy.

ends

© Scoop Media