Trade barriers affecting nearly $190 million of exports have been removed by the government over the past year.
Minister for Trade and Agriculture Todd McClay said they had resolved 14 non-tariff barriers (NTBs) over that period, returning significant value to Kiwi exporters.
“These efforts directly boost our trade value and make it easier for businesses to expand into key international markets.”
The also support the government’s target of doubling exports by value in 10 years, he said.
NTBs, which include regulatory obstacles like complex certification processes and import restrictions, currently affect $9.8 billion worth of New Zealand’s trade, with the primary sector facing the greatest impact.
“Boosting the export value of farming, forestry, horticulture and wine production [is] vital to our economy, as we oppose distortionary agricultural subsidies through the WTO to enhance global food security.”
The NTBs resolved include:
• A barrier that had affected $5m in trade devices exports to Mexico.
• Labelling issues in South Korea that cleared a shipment of New Zealand cheese worth $1.8m.
• Reduced regulatory burdens for wine and spirits exporters, including expanded labelling flexibility, with the European Union.
• Restored onion exports to Indonesia, NZ’s largest onion market, through streamlined phytosanitary certification.
• Restored log exports to India following changes to NZ’s fumigation practices.
“New Zealand exported $96.3 billion worth of goods and services in 2023. Over the next 12 months we will continue our focus on reducing NTBs including around costly EU deforestation regulations, Canadian dairy import restrictions, $300m of cosmetics exports to China and restrictions on structural timber exports to Australia,” he said.
In Focus Podcast | A new strategy for advocacy
AGMARDT and KPMG have released a report that offers a new way of organising our advocacy networks. Common Ground assesses the positives and negatives of the advocacy groups we have now and sets out a strategy that could improve the collaboration and messaging emanating from the farming world. AGMARDT general manager Lee-Ann Marsh joins Bryan to discuss the report.
