23 Oct 2012

Niue cautious about economic partnerships with China

5:36 am on 23 October 2012

The Premier of Niue says the country is attempting to have a free trade agreement with China but it is being extremely cautious.

The Niue government has a joint venture project with the New Zealand company Reef Group to harness the potential of exporting noni juice to China.

But Toke Talagi told delegates at a conference on democracy in the Pacific that Niue has little to offer in terms of export commodities and is concentrating on feeding its burgeoning tourist numbers.

"The focus at the present moment is tourism. The focus within tourism is to produce agricultural goods that we can use to feed the tourists that come. That's it."

Toke Talagi says there is potential for bottling water from Niue but says selling it will not be easy.