The Fiji-New Zealand Business Council says it's time the New Zealand government dealt more sensibly with Fiji's interim government.
The comment follows the tit-for-tat expulsions of Fiji diplomats from Wellington and Canberra after the New Zealand deputy high commissioner and Australia's high commissioner were ordered last week to leave Fiji.
The chair of the council's media relations committee says the ongoing disagreement between the governments of New Zealand and Fiji is putting a multi-million dollar trade at risk.
Carl Ngamoki-Cameron says the council wants New Zealand to lift its travel sanctions against Fiji as they've already weakened trade.
"it would go a long way to helping to resolve the situation just in general, rather than taking quite a principled and idealistic approach and standing back, putting down conditions we think it's perhaps time to be more practical and more realistic because trade in our opinion is suffering and has the potential to be lost with the threat of trade elsewhere such as China."
Carl Ngamoki-Cameron says the Fiji-New Zealand Business Council intends to write to the New Zealand government to urge it to speak to Fiji's interim government.
