You’ve got to hand it to NZ trade negotiators

Meaty matters

and chief negotiator, Crawford Falconer, to the role of chief trade negotiation adviser following Brexit.

may not hold water immediately.

Let’s start with the ridiculously stupid decision by the Ministry of Education to put nylon carpet in 800 rural schools. It’s been described as a kick in the guts for provincial NZ but I’ll add further comment at a future date.

Then we have the archbureaucracy, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with its excessive time wasting over the methane inhibitor Bovaer. Bovaer can reduce methane emissions in dairy cows by 30-45%. It is highly significant. Forty-five countries have approved its use, including Australia.

Now we hear that the EPA has “completed a Māori impact assessment” and is “consulting with WorkSafe”. What can WorkSafe legitimately add?

Internationally, Bovaer has been described as having “low to negligible risk to human, animal

It’s also petty cash compared with the $614m in cost over-runs on projects over the past four years, as ACT found out with parliamentary questions.

LTNZ’s insistence on an 80km/h limit for the straight road with just one bend between Featherston and Greytown is pure bloodymindedness.

A retired road police officer told me that during his tenure there were just two deaths on the road, with both caused by medical events.

That LTNZ is out of control is witnessed by its staff and salaries. Over half the staff earn over $100,000 annually with an additional half of that number earning over $150,000. On top of that it recently awarded an extra bonus, mainly to those who are highly paid. For what?

So, the Emerson Awards for LTNZ would be an A for arrogance for the organisation, an A for irrelevance for the board and an

Allan Barber

Meat industry commentator: allan@barberstrategic.co.nz, http:// allanbarber.wordpress.com

FREE Trade Agreements have long been viewed as the ultimate goal of trade negotiations on behalf of New Zealand’s exporters, although the population may not always view the reverse obligation to grant equivalent benefits to imports quite as favourably. There are 14 FTAs in force at present with more under negotiation or scheduled to come into force in the near future.

NZ trade negotiators have done a sterling job in concluding these agreements over recent decades and the ultimate compliment to their excellence was the United Kingdom government’s decision to engage ex-NZ ambassador to the World Trade Organisation

Beef + Lamb NZ estimates over 50% of red meat exports are covered by FTAs, and this will rise to nearly three-quarters when deals about to be concluded are in place. The United Statesbased International Trade Administration suggests 90% of NZ exports will be covered by FTAs by 2030, although the lack of interest shown by both US and Indian governments may make this target unduly optimistic.

The FTAs concluded with the UK and the European Union are calculated to result in immediate tariff savings of $37 million and $100m respectively from year one, with further savings on certain products, such as beef, sheepmeat and dairy products over a staggered timeframe.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade calculated these amounts by applying the existing tariff rate to the average of exports over the three-year pre-covid period 2017-19, to give a tariff saving for each product covered by the FTA. It further assesses the predicted benefits as an underestimate, with importers generally deciding to buy more product than before because of the tariff removal.

Although this argument is intuitively correct at face value, it

Rick Walker, ANZCO’s GM of sales and marketing, says customers aren’t stupid; they know the removal of a tariff means the product is now cheaper, so they are unlikely to agree to continue paying the previous price including the tariff in full. Walker believes buyers will agree to pay what they need to keep their customers happy, which probably means sharing the saving with the exporter.

While Australian farmers and, no doubt, a number of NZ red meat and dairy producers are not impressed by the EU FTA deal, it is a good one overall for many sectors of our economy.

As a rule of thumb this may result in keeping half the benefit gained from the FTA, although the end result will almost certainly be a higher volume of goods being bought, either because there is higher demand at a lower price or the removal of quota restrictions allows pent-up demand to be satisfied. Naturally the price paid must be at least as good as that available from an existing buyer.