Key goes to apac in peru

Prime Minister John Key is on a plane to Peru, aiming to improve New Zealand's trade picture.

Trade Minister Tim Groser arrived for the Apec conference last night and has already had dinner with his Australian counterpart, Simon Crean.

Mr Key hopes that with nine of the G20 nations at the meeting, some progress on trade will be made. He says multi-lateral trade deals such as the WTO rounds are an important issue.

"If you can't get them (multi-lateral deals) then regional deals or bi-laterals are really important. From New Zealand's point of view there are some pretty obvious ones out there where we would like to advance our position. The United States is one clearly."

Mr Key says China is a good trade partner to have on the books, but there are opportunities in Korea, India and Japan . However he says there is concern about how much economies such as China are slowing down.

Political commentator with the New Zealand Herald newspaper, Fran O'Sullivan, says New Zealand's ministers were not able to have a comprehensive briefing before departing for Apec because of the election.

"Things have been done on the fly, but there does seem to be an incredible amount of willingness to get together with the new people. We're seeing, for instance, some of the bigger delegations making room on their dance card. Tomorrow, they're hoping for a meeting with the Japanese. There are some big issues there about trying to get free trade talks on the table."

Ms O'Sullivan says Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully will be breakfasting with his Australian equivalent Stephen Smith. They will discuss the situation in Fiji.