New trade agreement a great opportunity
The new TPPA agreement being negotiated means better trade access, Andrew McGiven says.
As a farmer and an exporter, I think it is great that the new government appears more than willing to sign and ratify a new TPPA agreement, even if it has a change of name and one less country.
As a small trading nation that is heavily reliant on primary exports we can’t afford to let this opportunity slip for access into some of the world’s wealthiest and most protected economies. If we are to move our produce up the value chain, we need to be trading with these high-end nations who value our reputation for safe and natural products.
With the increasing cost of compliance around food production - be it health and safety, environmental improvements, animal welfare or labour regulations - these are the markets which are more than happy to pay a premium to ensure that their food supply is safe and secure.
For example, food safety and security are the number one priorities for the Chinese government, closely followed by the environment and corruption. Living in New Zealand we probably cannot appreciate how much we take having healthy and safe food on hand for granted.
This also makes the biosecurity of our little island paramount to protect out food producers’ reputation. We just can’t afford to host some of those nasty viruses and parasites, yet they seem to be appearing at our doorstep at frequent intervals.
It is a shame that there are some in New Zealand who can’t see the wood for the trees. Our food producers are some of the most efficient in the world, and despite various attempts to discredit our export economy we are still worldleading in many aspects.
Who remembers the food miles argument as an attempt to prevent New Zealand lamb getting into Britain? And the total surprise when it was discovered that New Zealand lamb had a much lower carbon footprint even though it had to be shipped halfway across the world.
Even the current water quality debates would have some of us believing that all our rivers should look like pristine alpine streams and that some of our water quality is the worst in the world.
Nothing could be further from the truth. While we do have some improvements to make, and farmers are the first to acknowledge this, I believe that we are lucky enough to be starting from a pretty high baseline. Any improvements need to come from a community-wide perspective, not industry-specific.
However, if we are not in the tent with other countries around trade and are unable to garner sufficient revenues from exports, then one of the first things to suffer will be financial contributions to environmental improvements.
There are not a lot of things in life that are free and some of these proposed measures to remedy our ailing environment and climate won’t be cheap. It’s hard to be green if you’re in the red, and that’s not a tilt at the current political situation.
In fact, my one hope would be that people could take the politics out of the environment so that we could get the best outcomes for all. Surely that’s not too much of a pipe dream.
❚ Andrew McGiven is president of Waikato Federated Farmers.