Hunter Nottage is New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam. The High Commission works with New Zealand agencies to promote political, trade, security, defence, education, cultural and consular relations with Malaysia and Brunei.
Hunter brings to the role legal, economic, trade and development experience.
Hunter was New Zealand’s International Trade Legal Adviser and Manager of Trade Law at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2014-18. He led the team responsible for legal advice in trade negotiations (including World Trade Organisation reform, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Brexit, EU and UK FTAs, and Pacific Alliance), dispute resolution, and domestic reforms. He has served as Senior Adviser to the Minister of Trade, Acting Ambassador (Chargé d’Affaires) to Argentina, and a WTO dispute settlement Panellist.
Previously, Hunter worked for a decade with developing countries at the WTO Advisory Centre in Geneva and with advanced economies at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, in Paris. He holds a Masters degree in law from Cambridge University (First Class, Chevening Scholar) and degrees economics and law from Victoria University. His 2018 paper Trade in War’s Darkest Hours: Churchill and Roosevelt’s historic 1941 Atlantic Meeting (external link) features on the WTO website. Hunter speaks English and French and is learning Bahasa Melayu, te Reo Mฤori and Spanish. He is married with two children.