increase font size
Stephen Jacobi.
The government and the Labour Party should reach a bipartisan consensus on how to roll out the current Trans Pacific Partnership process, says trade expert Stephen Jacobi.
Negotiations are at a “delicate” stage.
“This is too serious for New Zealand to just leave to domestic politics in my view. That’s why we like bipartisanship,” Jacobi, executive director of the NZ International Business Forum, told Dairy News.
“We have an opportunity potentially to conclude the Trans Pacific Partnership before the end of the year among the 11 remaining parties, excluding the United State which has pulled out.
“It would be a lot easier to conclude that agreement if it wasn’t open to renegotiation.”
Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson said last week NZ should hold out for a better Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal that includes blocking offshore buyers buying existing homes.
Jacobi says if we reopen negotiations, other countries will come up with different issues and “we will see a repeat of the eight years of negotiation we just spent trying to get TPP right. That’s the risk.
“Of course at this stage it is hard to say whether others will want to reopen negotiation. It is conceivable they might. It would be particularly damaging if the market aspects got reopened because that was a very delicately balanced exercise.
“For those reasons we would rather stay with TPP as it is at the moment.
“As you know the risk for us is if we don’t get TPP through we will be seriously squeezed in the Japanese market.”
The Europeans and the Australians now have free trade agreements with Japan. The Australians already have a much stronger advantage over us in beef, the Europeans will have that too once that is ratified.
The outcome for dairy wasn’t as strong in the TPP as it was for beef but nevertheless the same conditions will apply, say Jacobi.
“Over time Australia and the European Union would steal a march on us.”
That would apply to many products including dairy, and horticulture, wine and wood would also be exposed.
“The real gains from TPP came to us from Japan in the end, not from the United States,” says Jacobi. “It’s Japan we don’t have an FTA with; it is the only country in Asia we don’t have one with now.
“A lot rides on getting TPP through and things are very delicate at the moment. Calling for renegotiation is not a straightforward exercise and I don’t know that New Zealanders would be very well served to be the ones calling for it.”
TPP has got to this stage against the odds, he says.
“Everyone assumed once the United States pulled out the others would dissipate and all credit to the Government and negotiators for keeping up this work.
“But the Japanese are the key in this. They have put a lot of emphasis on this agreement for their own domestic restructuring so they clearly are not wanting to waste all that effort and that of course encourages other people to stay on board as well.
“Things are delicate. There’s been a meeting last month in Japan, there’s another one coming up next month in Australia. It is all around the time of the election.”
That is why Jacobi says a bipartisan agreement between the two major parties is needed.
The Cabinet has formally approved a negotiating mandate for the TPP 11.
The TPP11 are NZ, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada.
One of the country's leading experts on China has praised the NZ Government for its handling of the recent incident with China over that country's cyber attack on two of our parliamentary institutions in 2021.
New Zealand’s free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union comes into force on May 1, offering differing benefits for different sectors.
OPINION: With election day only a few days away and advance voting well underway, there appears to be a mood for change in rural and provincial New Zealand.
OPINION: With the election looming, both Labour and National have proposed huge cuts from public sector spending.
A large New Zealand trade delegation is in India this week - but don't expect any major trade deals.
Angus Barr and Tara Dwyer of The Wandle, Lone Star Farms in Strath Taieri have been named the Regional Supreme Winners at the Otago Ballance Farm Environment Awards in Dunedin.
OPINION: The distress that the politicians and bureaucrats are causing to the people of Wairoa and the wider Tairāwhiti is unforgivable.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
Telco infrastructure provider Chorus says that it believes all Kiwis – particularly those in the rural areas – need access to high-speed, reliable broadband.
World Veterinary Day falls on Saturday 27 April.
