Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Did you catch the comments yesterday from Malaysia Deputy PM. He was talking to a kiwi delegation off in KL for ASEAN. "This will be your new market and we welcome any halal product from New Zealand." I have always been pretty sceptical about these trade missions, whether they actually achieve something or are just a giant junket. The truth is their a bit of both.  On a trip to Vladivostok in Russia back in 2011, our PM got a sit down with Vladimir Putin.  The guy was late. We waited in the rain for hours. And then he came in in, sat down, spoke in Russian, then had his body guards usher us out of the room.  He and John Key spoke for about an hour.  At the time, NZ was trying to cut a free trade deal with Russia - including Belarus and Kazakhstan. You just don't get that sport of access everyday. Of course, you wouldn't be doing that deal today. We suspended talks in 2014 with Ukraine. So I grew to accept these meetings actually do achieve something. Besides, the hotels and accommodation t