14 Nov 2017 - Former Prime Minister Sir John Key spoke to a crowd of 350 at the launch party of professional services firm K3 last Thursday night. he event at Auckland’s Maritime Room celebrated the establishment of K3, a professional services firm which brings together legal, accounting and consulting services under one roof. With more than half of K3’s Legal team fluent in Mandarin and the firm’s extensive links with the Chinese community, Sir John spoke at length about New Zealand’s relationship with China.

“As PM I went to China seven times and everyone knows that I’m a massive China fan. I think the opportunities are enormous, the country is amazing, and the leadership is doing extremely well,” said Sir John, who noted he arrived at the K3 event in an Uber, not a Crown car.

Challenging convention was a subject also covered by K3 Directors Mark Kirkland and Marcus Morrison who spoke about how K3 is looking at business differently, and their desire to make a genuine difference to New Zealand businesses.

“Professional services firms have been run in the same way for generations. But the market has changed extremely rapidly so we think that traditional model needs to change too. Businesses today want a greater depth and breadth of service that is outcome oriented. Our goal is to become New Zealand’s most trusted professional service firm,” said Morrison.

Reflecting on his time as Prime Minister, Sir John said while he has no wish to be PM now, he is extremely grateful for the time he had as leader of New Zealand

“One of the things you can do when you’re Prime Minister is you can shape the country and you really can make a difference. Hopefully [during] the time I was there, we were able, as a government, to economically put New Zealand on a much stronger footing.

“Whatever you think of the world, I reckon most people get up in the morning and they don’t want to be dependent on the state and they do want to look after themselves, they do want to look after their family and they have a lot of personal pride,” said Sir John, to much applause from the audience.

He’d been doing a lot of travelling and had realised New Zealanders tended to overestimate how much other countries knew about “a country of 4.8 million at the bottom of the planet. New Zealand has an amazing reputation but, man, we have to keep fighting for our place in the world.”

The impact of technology was covered by Sir John, who recalled a recent incident at an Under Armour store in China, where he wanted to buy a pair of Jordan Speith golf shoes. At the counter he tried to pay for the shoes using AMEX, Visa, Mastercard and even cash, all of which were rejected by the salesperson.

“So I said, what do you take? And she said, WeChat or Alipay, and that’s it, that was the only thing they accepted. There’s a lot happening in the world that’s really changing. If you look at China, they have some of the most impressive leadership that you’ll find and they’re developing some of the most amazing technology.” He said China’s tech industry was out-stripping Silicon Valley and predicted it would be well ahead of the USA in a decade.

Although Sir John avoided talking specifically about the new coalition government, he did allude to it. “There’s a lot of rhetoric out there that’s anti-migration, anti-investment, anti-trade. But we have to back ourselves to succeed and not be afraid of people coming to New Zealand, don’t be afraid about foreign capital coming in to our companies, don’t be afraid about engaging in free trade deals. If we buy into the Trump rhetoric, we’re going in the wrong direction,” he said.

| A K3 releases  ||  November 14,  2017   |||

14 Nov 2017  -  The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand maintains its strong opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).   “The Green Party has long opposed the TPPA. The new proposed deal, which came out of the weekend’s talks, still contains key ISDS concessions to corporations that put our democracy at risk, so our position remains the same,” said Green Party trade spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman.

“We support fair trade that brings real benefit to all New Zealanders – not trade deals that put our rights and our Government’s ability to legislate to protect our people and our environment at risk.

“ISDS mechanisms are a particular threat to environmental protections, with 85% of ISDS cases being brought by corporations focused on exploiting the environment and natural resources.

“The Green Party will be seeking to introduce new measures that require all trade agreements in the future to be part of the solution to climate change, global and local inequality and the protection of human rights.

“Standing in opposition to the TPPA does not make a difference to our relationship with Labour. Indeed it is a sign of the strength of that relationship that we can respectfully disagree on an important issue like the TPPA but still get on with the business of government.

“We made it clear to Labour in negotiations that we cannot support the TPPA, and they understand our policy difference.

“We will continue to use our position in Government to fight for better trade agreements that protect the interests of people and the planet, not just corporations,” said Ms Ghahraman.

| A Green party release  ||  November 13,  2017   |||

13 Nov 2017  -  Recent changes to the TPP agreement, now called CPTPP, appear to be a step forward, particularly with the potential removal of some of the more controversial parts, such as Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses. Yet, we need to remind ourselves that the primary target of these FTAs is the reduction of tariffs, providing benefits to our primary commodity exporters, but little relief to our high value manufacturers, who frequently encounter obstacles to free trade in the form of non-tariff barriers.

“Non-tariff barriers are the ‘dirty little secrets’ rarely written into trade agreements, but a matter of daily practice far away from glamorous trade talks. And probably, just as harmful to local manufacturers is the almost complete lack of enforcement of product standards in our domestic markets, allowing imported goods to trade on a price advantage. Not to mention government procurement practices that in most cases pay lip service only to the principle of giving local manufacturers a fair chance, says Mr Dieter Adam, CE, The Manufacturers’ Network.

“The removal of some of the contentious parts of the previous agreement is a positive move from the Government, giving the eventual agreement broader support in New Zealand. However, we know from past experience that the really hard work starts once the agreement comes into force, in working to remove the non-tariff barriers that form the biggest challenges for high-value manufacturers making the most of the markets involved, says Mr Adam.

“Quality trade agreements are a vital component of improving our export competitiveness, especially when non-tariff barriers that effect manufacturers are properly addressed. We cannot ignore the fact, however, that in spite of a string of recent FTAs, such as the China and Korean FTAs, the share of exports in GDP has been dropping over the past decade, rather than growing by 25% - the goal the previous Government had set itself not long after coming into power in 2008. As the new Government is rightly pointing out, New Zealand’s future prosperity can only be secured by significantly growing our exports of high-value products and services. And one of the key preconditions for that lies in improving our productivity, which has lagged through successive governments. Improving productivity and thus increasing our ability to create high-value goods and services is where the new Government should focus.

“The other critical enabler to a more balanced approach to growth in our economy is a more favourable and fair exchange rate, especially against the Australian Dollar, given that Australia is a key market for our manufacturing exports. And in that context comments made by the Acting Governor of the RBNZ, Grant Spencer, at the November MPS press conference that “We’re happy with this [the current] level of our currency, it’s in the vicinity of fair value” are certainly not helpful and point to a change from recent RBNZ statements under Graeme Wheeler, setting around 60 cents as a target rate. It will be interesting to see the response of the new Government to this new assessment of ‘fair value’ by the RBNZ. Addressing our exchange rate, which has remained significantly above trends in the previous decade, need to be part of the discussion in the upcoming review and appointment of a new Governor, said Mr Adam.

| A The Manufacturiers Network release  ||  November 13,  2017   |||

13 Nov 2017  -  The 2017 ExportNZ DHL Export Barometer released today shows Kiwi exporters are feeling confident and expecting orders to increase over the next 12 months, Business New Zealand says.

Optimism is very positive with 71% of New Zealand exporters expecting international orders to increase - this is a jump from 63% in 2016.

The research shows that overall 2017 has been a good year, with just over half (55%) of exporters achieving an increase in international orders.

While the survey was carried out prior to the election, ongoing political support for the export environment will be crucial to ensure Kiwi businesses achieve the perceived upcoming boost to orders.

Exporters responding to the survey cited several key ways in which assistance from the New Zealand Government could help their business. Research and development assistance came out top at 26%, closely followed by help attending trade shows with other NZ companies, and more free trade agreements (both 25%).

ExportNZ executive director Catherine Beard said: "The results show that trading with the USA has increased significantly over the past year, with more than half of Kiwi exporters sending orders to the USA and over half (55%) seeing the Trump administration as having a neutral impact on exports, while 41% thought it had a negative impact on exports,” Beard added.

"The fact that R&D has been flagged up as a key area for assistance is significant as more than half (52%) of exporters developed new products and services in a bid to boost export orders. Innovation can be a powerful tool for overcoming the ‘strength of competition in overseas markets’, which is the number one concern among exporters (42%).

Online commerce holds steady The 2017 ExportNZ DHL Export Barometer shows that while some exporters have embraced online commerce, not much has changed in the last two years.

One-fifth of exporters generate more than half of their international orders online, including 6% who generate all export orders this way. There is still plenty of room for growth as 26% said that none of their export orders are generated online.

DHL Express NZ country manager Mark Foy said: "Online commerce is a massive growth area for Kiwi exporters with huge potential to reach international audiences. Currently most businesses, 80%, are only spending one-fifth of their marketing budget online.

"Social media holds much untapped potential to reach overseas consumers looking for innovative and unique goods. However, 68% of companies say they do not use social media to generate orders or enquiries."

While Australia remains by far our number one trading partner (72%), we are shifting towards the ever-growing China (30%) and away from our traditional chief trading partner, the UK (26%), post-Brexit.

A joint initiative between ExportNZ and DHL, a total of 379 New Zealand exporters were surveyed for the ExportNZ DHL Export Barometer 2017.

13 Nov 2017  -  After a few fraught days, the TPP was given new life. However, the struggles to get the deal across the line and other issues at the Apec summit raise questions about obstacles to multilateral trade and what that means for New Zealand, as Sam Sachdeva reports.  The ideological battle for the future of Asia-Pacific trade played out on the big screen at Da Nang.

Of course, there was the stuttering, stumbling, but ultimately successful (or near enough) negotiations to reach agreement on the TPP (now known as the CPTPP - the Comprehensive and Progressive agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership).

While the New Zealand team was cautiously hailing the outcome, other events at the Apec summit may have given them cause for concern when it comes to multilateralism.

In his speech to the Apec CEO’s Summit, US President Donald Trump railled against what he saw as unfair trading arrangements, saying the US had “not been treated fairly” by the WTO and other countries had not reciprocated the favours extended by his country.

While the US was open to bilateral agreements with any Asia-Pacific country, he made no bones about its approach to multilateralism.

“What we will no longer do is enter into large agreements that tie our hands, surrender our sovereignty, and make meaningful enforcement practically impossible.”

Worryingly, there are some concerns about whether Trump wants to kill the WTO: an article in the New York Times suggested American negotiators had warned their Mexican and Canadian counterparts that they could not expect their trade to “simply snap back to WTO rules” if the US leaves NAFTA.

Continue here to read the full Newsroom article by Sam Sachdeva ||  November 13 2017   |||

12 Nov  2017  -  Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker has welcomed the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which incorporates the TPP.  A Ministerial Statement has been issued today by all eleven Ministers in Da Nang, Viet Nam, which confirms the core elements of the deal are now agreed, with just four issues requiring further technical work and discussion.

"My Ministerial counterparts and I also agreed this week to suspend a number of the most controversial parts of the of the original TPP in the new Agreement,” says Minister Parker.

“At the same time, there will be no change to the goods market access outcomes contained in the original TPP.

“This is a now an improved deal for New Zealand.

“The overall outcome satisfies the five conditions that the Labour-led Government laid out for a revised TPP:

• It achieves meaningful gains in market access for farmers and supports the more than 620,000 New Zealanders whose jobs depend on exports. The CPTPP will also provide New Zealand for the first time with preferential market access into Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, as well as Canada, Mexico and Peru;

• It upholds the unique status of the Treaty of Waitangi;

• It preserves New Zealand’s right to regulate in the public interest. We have also retained the reciprocal agreement with Australia, which is the source of 80 per cent of our overseas investment from this new grouping, that ISDS clauses will not apply between our countries. We continue to seek similar agreements with the other countries in this new Agreement. In addition, the scope to make ISDS claims has also been narrowed;

• The Pharmac model continues to be protected. Further improvements now achieved include suspension of patent extensions which could have increased the cost of medicine to the government; and

• The ability to control the sale of New Zealand homes is being preserved by separate legislation in New Zealand.

“New Zealand will now be focused on working together with our partner countries toward signature, including on the four specific items to be finalised by the date of signature of the new Agreement.

“I expect negotiators will need to meet again in the next few months to take this forward.

“In the meantime, I want New Zealanders to have the opportunity to understand what has been agreed and what it means for them, their families and their country, before anything is signed or ratified.

“Like all free trade agreements, the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee will scrutinise the CPTPP and Parliament will consider the necessary legislative changes needed to give effect to the agreement.”

Notes:

The CPTPP was negotiated between Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, Viet Nam, and New Zealand.

The four remaining specific items to be finalised by the date of signature are included at the end of the list of suspended provisions.Beehive.govt.nz

|  A beehive release  ||  November 11,  2017   |||

10 Nov 2017  -  Minister for Trade and Export Growth, David Parker, today welcomed the World Trade Organisation (WTO) decision to uphold New Zealand’s case against agricultural trade barriers imposed by Indonesia.  On 9 November, the WTO's Appellate Body confirmed that a number of Indonesian agricultural trade barriers are inconsistent with global trade rules. The decision upholds key findings of a WTO dispute settlement Panel, which in December last year ruled in New Zealand's favour and was subsequently appealed by Indonesia.

New Zealand and the US initiated the case in 2013 in response to a range of next-generation agricultural “non-tariff” barriers applied by Indonesia to imports since 2011. They include import prohibitions, behind-the-border use and sale restrictions on imports, restrictive import licensing, and a domestic purchase condition.

This WTO case illustrates the value that New Zealand, as a small country, gains from international trade rules. Mike Moore, when Director-General of the WTO, described its dispute settlement system as “the jewel in its crown”. The last WTO case that New Zealand brought to the WTO challenged an Australian ban on our apples, which we initiated in 2007.

“These barriers affect opportunities for many New Zealand agricultural exporters, including producers of onions, apples and beef,” Mr Parker says.

“The restrictions are commercially significant for those exporters, and are estimated to have now cost the New Zealand beef sector close to a billion dollars of lost exports into an important market.”

“This decision from the WTO's highest dispute settlement body is an important result for our agricultural exporters and should pave the way to grow New Zealand exports to the Indonesian market.”

In 2010, prior to the introduction of the challenged restrictions, Indonesia was New Zealand's second-largest beef export market by volume, worth $180 million a year. That trade subsequently plummeted by 85 percent. This case aims to secure more open and predictable access into Indonesia for a range of our exports.

"New Zealand has a strong and mutually beneficial relationship with Indonesia, and this trade disagreement is only a small part of that broader bilateral relationship.

“Indonesia’s approach to these WTO hearings has been exemplary. The tone has been collegial and constructive. In the proceedings Indonesia also underlined the longstanding and mutually respectful relationship that Indonesia enjoys with New Zealand and a desire to strengthen this important relationship.

“I look forward to working with my Indonesian counterpart over the coming months to finalise resolution of this long-standing trade issue,” says Mr Parker.

Further information about the dispute can be found at https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/trade/trade-law-and-dispute-settlement/current-disputes/

| A Beehive release  ||  November 2017   |||

10 Nov 2017  -  An unnamed Asian member of the so-called TPP-11 has thrown a spanner in the works of 11th-hour negotiations on the future of the controversial Pacific Rim trade and investment deal.

Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker told New Zealand media early local time that there had been “an unusual turn of events” at the trade ministers’ meeting in Da Nang last night.

The ministers believed they had reached an agreement at around 10pm and there was “celebratory clapping”, only for an official of an unnamed nation to dispute that a settlement had been reached.

The issue arose in checking details of text changes agreed to the agreement.

Parker would not name the country but said it was not New Zealand and not Canada, which has been sending signals it is reluctant to be rushed into an agreement.

Vietnam, the host country for the APEC leaders’ summit where the TPP-11 talks are occurring, and Malaysia are both known to have been resistant to concluding an 11-member deal because both are making major concessions on labour and environmental standards and trade which were most valuable when the US was in the TPP tent.

US president Donald Trump withdrew his country from the TPP as his first act upon election, but the remaining 11, led by Japan, have sought to keep the deal alive.

Parker declined to discuss the outstanding sticking point, but said it was of importance to New Zealand, suggesting the issue may relate to market access for agricultural access, which is the primary value of the deal for New Zealand exporters but sensitive for most other TPP members.

There were suggestions overnight of irritation that news of the consensus was leaking ahead of a TPP-11 leaders’ meeting this afternoon local time. Leaders’ thunder had effectively been stolen by the early leaks.

Significantly, Parker gave the strongest indication yet New Zealand is ready to sign the TPP-11 deal, despite getting less than the new Labour-led government wanted in terms of watering down investor-state dispute settlement provisions.

New Zealand had “improved” its position, he said.

| A SharChat release  ||  november 10,  2017   |||

9 Nov 2017  -  New Zealand’s exports in semi-processed casings are set to resume in the next few weeks following successful talks between New Zealand and China. Semi-processed casings are thin tubular cases used as sausage skins. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says trade discussions have been successful.

“The Ministry for Primary Industries and Chinese authorities have successfully completed talks to enable exports of semi-processed natural casings from New Zealand to China to resume.

“In 2013, New Zealand voluntarily suspended exports in semi-processed casings in response to discussions with Chinese authorities about the processing steps for these casings.

"New Zealand was able to provide information to Chinese authorities and work with them on revised certification requirements to enable trade to resume next month,” says Damien.

“International trade is built on good working relationships between countries and I’m pleased that trade in semi-processed casings will resume soon.

“Natural casings from New Zealand have traditionally been in high demand in China.

“New Zealand currently exports fully processed casings to China. Access for semi-processed casings will provide industry with opportunities to increase export value and returns.

“China will be a significant market for our semi-processed casings, with exports expected to exceed $100 million.

“This progress is further demonstration of the positive relationship New Zealand shares with China."

8 Nov  -  Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker says the Government will not shrink away from New Zealand’s leadership role on free trade - but it must be on our terms. Before heading to Apec, Parker spoke to Sam Sachdeva, Newsroom's Foreign Affairs and Trade EditorNewsroom's Foreign Affairs and Trade Editor about taking on “the excesses of globalised capital” and avoiding a public backlash.  Befitting his status as one of Labour’s policy wonks, David Parker has been handed an array of challenging roles.

The economic development and environment portfolios, both areas where the Government has some ambitious plans, would be challenging enough, with the Attorney-General position adding more work again.

Yet Parker’s toughest role may be as Trade and Export Growth Minister, where he will be tasked with satisfying the scepticism of supporters regarding free trade deals while placating exporters and the business community.

Early signs have been positive, with a ban on foreign buyers fulfilling Labour’s pre-election pledge without jeopardising TPP talks and existing trade deals (with the exception of Singapore). Yet tougher obstacles may lie ahead.

FTAs 'sexy' but not enough

Under the previous National government, trade ministers Tim Groser and Todd McClay made a virtue of signing New Zealand up to as many free trade agreements as possible.

The Trade Agenda 2030 strategy, unveiled by McClay earlier this year, set a target of having 90 per cent of New Zealand’s exports covered by FTAs.

Parker is less convinced, saying of FTAs: “They’re sexy but they’re not the be-all and end-all.”

“Exports could go down and you could still meet that [90 per cent] target - FTAs are not the driver of investment in the new products and services that we need to sell to the world.”

Continue here to read the full article on Newsroom  ||  November 8,  2017   |||