Even as a youngster, growing up in New Zealand, I knew – we all did – that exports were fundamental to our standard of living.

Later, doing an undergraduate degree in economics and law, I learned that, while the benefits from international trade are a matter of economics, the determinants of that trade are so often a matter of law – the trade agreements that govern access to markets abroad. And later, working for the OECD, I learned how infernally complex trade agreements are and how long they take to negotiate.