-
Watch Video
-
Related
Q+A's panel of Paul Holmes, Dr Jon Johansson, Ella Henry and Michael Barnett discuss the interview with Tim Groser .
PAUL HOLMES Well he seems to speak a lot of sense Mr Groser?
ELLA HENRY - Former Greenpeace Director
It is, unfortunately I'm old enough to remember 25 years of New
Zealand's trade liberalisation, and I'm still waiting for the
benefits to trickle down to the Maori communities that I interact
with. So I'll wait with baited breath.
JON JOHANSSON - Political Analyst
Well he's out there doing as one of my colleagues would say, doing
God's work in the sense that he's trying to create opportunities
for New Zealand business and that should be applauded. I am more
pessimistic however on the TPP front, just because of the
circumstances in America that any deal can pass the US Congress, so
I think a lot of effort's going to go into this, but whether that's
ever going to see the light of day is a more open question.
PAUL Yes I mean essentially they're not absolute free traders, the Obama regime are they?
JON Oh far from it and in a climate where you've got basically 10% unemployed, even if the Republicans took over the Congress where you would think would be more conducive to free trade, I think they're just too worried about their own constituency.
PAUL And of course in his own home town Chicago, African Americans maybe 25 to 30% unemployed.
JON Yeah it's huge.
PAUL Michael Barnett, yes these free trade deals, do they benefit us?
MICHAEL BARNETT - Auckland Chamber of
Commerce
I think so but if I look at it you know from my helicopter view,
all my life I've heard governments talking about export recoveries
and I think when we have a look at the work that's happening by
successive governments, we've been given improved accessibility to
various economies, I think that's great, so the platform's set so
now we talk about possibilities and we talk about potential. I
actually think that the business community in working with
government is yet to get off the mark, I think there's a whole lot
of things that we can do in respect of changes in behaviour,
changes in focus, and we're not doing that.
JON So what holds that back?
MICHAEL I look at - it always staggers me for example that we don't have an agency - if exporting is so vital to us - we don't have an agency that's got the word export in it.
PAUL It's terribly difficult to export if you're a small operator, it's terribly difficult to roll up with your trolley in a market you know, and get people to buy your stuff.
MICHAEL It is and I think that the table has been set to assist the larger organisations who to a larger degree can help themselves, but unless we purposefully turn round and doing something that's going to help the smaller entrepreneur to go offshore, to play in the trade fairs, to be able to participate, have Ministers open doors for them and create possibilities, it's not going to happen, we really do need to make a difference. I look at KEA you know the Kiwi expats abroad, they've just got a thing that they're starting, it's associated with the Rugby World Cup, it's called Pass it On, but they're looking at the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders offshore, how can they help small guys back here, how can they give them contact, how can they help them, it's that sort of initiative&
PAUL How can we establish New Zealanders offshore help the new ones coming?
PAUL India, let's see what Tim Groser said about India.
Tim Groser: 'I don't have much taste for these sort of figures although they seem part of the deal that you have to do these estimates, I think it's more important for us to focus on the big picture, New Zealand needs trading opportunities, this is the second giant developing country in the world, let's do a deal.'
PAUL Let's do a deal, one of the biggest giant developed countries in the world - sensible?
ELLA I think so, and particularly because we have a very strong Indian community in New Zealand which I think bridges gaps into that community, it fosters understanding, I think they're natural partners in many ways. I worry about their lack of environmental and labour standards though, that's a great concern.
PAUL When you say you're waiting for these free trade deals to trickle down to the Maori community, I've gotta pick you up there, couldn't the Maori community go offshore in export as well?
ELLA I think that's beginning to happen, certainly in the agricultural domain, but the great mass of Maori in this country are still under employed, under educated and overly poor.
JON And it still requires those networks that Michael is talking about as well.
MICHAEL I was with the Minister when they signed the ANZFTA agreement up in Kuala Lumpur, and there were some young Maori entrepreneurs up there, and they were using the platform to be able to open doors and do stuff, so while I don't disagree with it, all I'm saying is I think we could be doing a lot more to expand.
PAUL He was canny when he was talking about India, he was canny about whether an impediment, you know whether environmental or if you like child labour, low wage concerns, are going to be an impediment to doing a deal with New Zealand, make that decision later. What did you make of that?
JON Ah it's a suck it and see isn't it? You know we'll confront that when we have to confront that.
MICHAEL The biggest barriers that are going to occur with India are going to be the same that have occurred in China and Korea and Japan, and that's going to be agriculture. It's the protection that's there.
PAUL So we don't hold any immediate hopes for the Trans Pacific Partnership, is that right?
JON It's staying busy until the over arching international framework changes, and it doesn't look like that's changing any time soon either.
ELLA I agree, I agree, and I think - I mean New Zealand does have to be participating in these international fora and I'm glad we have got a strong presence, I guess I am parochial in my view, I keep asking what does this mean for my community.
MICHAEL But of the eight you know that we're going to, we've got four of those countries already, we're going to eight, the only big catch for New Zealand is going to be the US who have played hard to get for the last years.
JON Why is it the big catch?
MICHAEL As I say the only country that we don't really already have either agreements with or possibilities with I'm saying that for years we've been saying that we needed to get alongside the United States, it is a big market, it would be a big catch.
ELLA We just have to be sanguine I mean the reality is America's the most protected market in the world in terms of the man perspective.
PAUL Particularly agriculture.
JON It's the holy grail.
ELLA It is.
PAUL And the pork barrel politics are so ingrained.
