Editorial: We are Trumped
OPINION: Nothing it seems can be done in the short term to get Donald Trump to change his mind about removing the unfair 15% tariffs that he’s imposed on New Zealand exports to the US.
Even with a free trade agreement you can have "enormous challenges" if you don't have authorities on each side of the border supporting the passage of goods, Prime Minister John Key says.
If New Zealand does not give exporters the sort of support and services that they need, it will make their lives very difficult, he told a China Business Summit in Auckland yesterday.
New Zealand is a long way away, "we are the last bus stop on the planet", he said.
"So the point where a New Zealand company says I am going to go to Shanghai or Beijing or some part of China to sell a product because I can see there are 1.3 billion consumers there that are rapidly becoming middle income, that's easy.
"The hard bit is the legal issues, the language issues, the accounting issues, the in-country support, where they pick a partner, where they can rely on a partner – all of those kinds of things are much more challenging and for a country like New Zealand that happens much earlier on in the development of that company.
"If they were in Australia they could move from one state to another, become a critical mass, then think about exporting. In New Zealand's case it is not always as easy as that."
Nevertheless he said the China story is a big success, based on underlying fundamental consumer demand.
The $5 billion of dairy product and the infant formula going into China reflects that China has 20 million babies a year. With a two child policy, that will increase, he said.
"We know they highly value the quality and safety of the New Zealand product," he said.
He says to get two-way trade between New Zealand and China to $30 billion by 2020 is possible but some changes are needed, including more investment.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
'Common sense' cuts to government red tape will make it easier for New Zealand to deliver safe food to more markets.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.