Negotiations with Korea, India offer opportunities

Media Release

4 March 2009

Free trade negotiations with Korea and India offer opportunities for meat and wool sector

The recent announcements that New Zealand is to enter into two sets of free trade negotiations with Korea and India are great news for the red meat and wool sectors, according to Meat & Wool New Zealand Chairman, Mike Petersen and Meat Industry Association Chairman Bill Falconer.

“If comprehensive, high-quality deals can be concluded, these will be a great achievement by our trade negotiators” Petersen said today. “We congratulate the various Ministers and officials, both in New Zealand and Korea and India, who have managed to progress discussions to this stage”.

Korea and India represent very different prospects, according to Falconer, with both potential free trade agreements (FTA’s) offering significant opportunities for New Zealand sheep and beef farmers and meat processor-exporters.

Korea is already a well established market for New Zealand meat.

“It is our second largest market for beef, importing over 40,000 tonnes last year. It is also a market where we face high tariff and technical barriers to trade,” said Petersen.

In addition to being an important export market for New Zealand red meat and co-products, Korea is also an important export destination for the same products from the US and Australia. Given that the US has already concluded FTA negotiations with Korea, and that Australia like New Zealand is about to enter into FTA negotiations, a potential New Zealand-Korea FTA will enable New Zealand meat exporters to compete on a level playing field.

Falconer said India is a completely different proposition.

“While we do send some hides and skins to India, we are currently unable to export meat due to Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) restrictions and high tariffs. While a large proportion of the Indian population does not eat beef, Indians are traditional consumers of sheep meat.

“An FTA that allowed for the export of sheepmeat would effectively create the opportunity to tap into a market of over a billion consumers. This would clearly create significant new export opportunities,”said Falconer.

Petersen cautioned that the sector needs to be realistic about the timeframes associated with trade deals of such magnitude, especially with India, where much new ground would need to be broken.

“Farmers and exporters should be excited about these deals and look forward to their conclusion, but bear in mind that the timeframes are measured in years, not months.”

Falconer added that it is important to take the time to get these deals right to ensure comprehensive high-quality deals are achieved.

“Our organisations will be sitting down with officials to describe the sort of deals that would provide the greatest benefits to the sector. Our objective is always to have all tariff and non-tariff trade barriers eliminated as quickly as possible.”

ENDS

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