New Zealand's Finance Minister Nicola Willis said New Zealand believes it should be immune from any sweeping tariffs that Trump might impose if he takes office and has instructed officials to make that view clear. "Our starting position is please don't do this, the mandate we give our diplomats is to put the absolute best foot forward for New Zealand," Willis said on Thursday. While New Zealand is only a small trading partner from Washington's perspective, the United States is New Zealand's second-largest export market. Trump's rationale for imposing tariffs begins with the fact that the United States imports more than it exports, thus running a trade deficit. But Willis said the US trade relationship with New Zealand was "pretty balanced" and had grown significantly in recent years. New Zealand exported NZ$15.8 billion ($9 billion) in goods and services to the United States in the year to September and imported NZ$11.3 billion from the United States. While some tariffs are imposed, they are relatively small. For example, New Zealand beef exports to the United States are currently subject to a tariff of less than 1%. "Americans love the products we sell, they love our wines, they love our dairy products, and we think that given the strong partnership that has existed between our two countries over the years, there's every reason for that relationship to continue," Willis said. . "The United States also has dozens of trading relationships around the world and I don't think anyone would have found New Zealand to be the most obvious one on their radar when they first came into office," she said. When asked what, if anything, New Zealand would do if the new US administration imposed tariffs on its goods, Willis declined to speculate. We don't have the details yet of how they might choose to implement their own tariff regime, and of course our diplomats are considering various scenarios, but as I said, we have a very strong, close, valuable relationship with the U.S.