What a Trump presidency means for NZ

  • 10/11/2016
Donald Trump and his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway greet supporters during his election night rally in Manhattan (Reuters)
Donald Trump and his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway greet supporters during his election night rally in Manhattan (Reuters)

A US political expert says there's a big question mark now hanging over New Zealand's future relationship with United States.

It comes after controversial Republican and business mogul Donald Trump added the role of 45th US President to his resume on Wednesday night (NZ time).

Waikato University's Al Gillespie says he has reservations about what the future holds.

"What this means for a country like New Zealand is that we're likely to become more neutral," he says. "In the past we were moving back toward the influence of the Obama administration and the Americans. Now I think we're going to go back to a much more neutral stance."

Mr Gillespie also has fears for what Mr Trump's US will do to the environment, as it is likely he'll pull out of the Paris climate deal.

"That took 25 years to negotiate. For a country like New Zealand, what that means is that it's likely that the entire infrastructure will collapse around that agreement."

New Zealand's trade relationship with the US is likely to be very different under a Mr Trump regime.

Mr Gillespie says the Trans-Pacific Partnership is dead in the water.

"New Zealand hasn't got a direct relationship with America over trade. But we have a number of indirect relationships, and obviously the TPPA was going to be one of those relationships.

"There's no way the TPPA will float now. It's gone."

Back here, Prime Minister John Key has congratulated Mr Trump and says he looks forward to continuing a strong relationship with the US.

Hillary Clinton is yet to speak about her loss.

Newshub.