The Cook Islands Government has stopped a Chinese-owned business on Rarotonga from operating.
The minister in charge of the Business Trade and Investment Board, Mark Brown, says it appears a Chinese businessman from Samoa arrived in the country with a container of goods and opened a business without getting approval.
He says the application for the business, Coinsave, has now been declined by the Board.
Mr Brown says this is because it is an area of business reserved for locals only.
He also says peddling cheap goods is not counted as investment in the Cook Islands.
