A big focus of the talks will be upgrading the free trade deal between China and New Zealand. The two nations wrapped up the latest round of negotiations in November. CGTN's Wang Mengzhen sat down with a trade expert to learn more.

Signed in 2008, it was the first free trade agreement that China signed with a developed country.

For New Zealand, China is now its biggest trading partner, surpassing Australia. 

When visiting New Zealand in 2017, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed the importance of this deal.

LI KEQIANG CHINESE PREMIER "The China-New Zealand free trade agreement is the highest-level agreement between China and developed economies."

The FTA was signed in April 2008 in Beijing, after 15 rounds of talks and came into force in October that year. In late 2016, the two sides decided to upgrade their trade deals after witnessing a triple increase in value. So far, the two countries have finished their 6th round of talks.

The upgrade is expected to cover many more areas in the services, e-commerce and environmental protection.

To learn what's motivating all this, we talked with a trade professional in Beijing.

WANG MENGZHEN BEIJING "After several rounds of trade talks, what do you think are the substantial progress has been made and what are the sticking points ahead?"

Official statistics from New Zealand show bilateral trade volume in commodities reached over 1.4 billion US dollars in January, an increase of 4.4% year on year. Data also indicates China has had deficits in both trade and investment with New Zealand over the years. But Beijing continues to stress that regardless of these figures, it will throw its doors wide open to not just New Zealand, but the whole world. Wang Mengzhen. CGTN, BEIJING.