Trade between the United Kingdom and New Zealand is building momentum one year on from the signing of the UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, UK High Commissioner Iona Thomas says.
Exports from both parties have increased over the past year, indicating that businesses are interested in each other’s markets, and it was becoming more affordable for each country to do business, Thomas said, speaking at Fieldays.
UK consumers are also happy to have more choice when there are cost of living pressures. “To have great produce in stores is fantastic.”
She was diplomatic when asked about the controversy in May when UK farmers were angry that NZ lamb was being trialled by supermarket company Morrisons in its stores.
“Farmers everywhere are always keen to make sure that they can sell their produce so they’ll be fighting for market share,” Thomas said.
It led to claims by the UK National Farmers’ Union that NZ lamb is produced to “potentially lower standards” and has high food miles, which were refuted by Beef+Lamb NZ.
Thomas said NZ has always had access to the UK market and had been struggling to fill its lamb quota.
“We don’t see the market as being flooded by NZ lamb,” she said.
The FTA saw tariffs removed from the vast majority of NZ goods imported to the UK. Some of these removals are time sequenced to take place after five years.
That will occur regardless of the upcoming election result, she said.
The FTA is also a living document and there are groups on hand that are in constant communication with their NZ counterparts around conversations to help companies utilise the FTA.
“Just in the last couple of months we had our chief vet visit NZ to talk about animal welfare [and] phytosanitary and to talk about ways we can have high standards between our two countries.”
Those conversations included finding common ground and collaborating where possible, particularly in the agricultural space. One of those is around sustainability.
“We’re here this week promoting UK agritech and ways that specific expertise in the UK can benefit NZ farmers and vice versa.
“It’s a real area of collaboration and there’s a lot of innovations that are happening that are applicable in both countries and we hope that farmers in both countries benefit from that.”
