Free trade deal ‘not a moment too soon’
Business groups are hailing news of the final agreement on a major pan-Pacific free trade deal, warning exporters were starting to miss out because of a lack of an agreement with Japan.
Yesterday it emerged that negotiators from 11 countries had concluded talks for the Comprehensive and Progressive TransPacific Partnership (CPTPP), effectively a rebranding of the contentious TPPA.
After winning a series of minor concessions from Canada, the trade deal is expected to be signed in Chile on March 8.
Business groups, which have warned that New Zealand could miss out on lucrative markets if it was not part of the deal, said exporters were already seeing the consequences of the lack of a deal.
‘‘CPTPP comes not a moment too soon for New Zealand in Japan, where our trade interests have suffered because we lack the sort of trade arrangements that our competitors enjoy,’’ said Stephen Jacobi, executive director of the International Business Forum.
The deal gave New Zealand agreements with Japan, Canada, Mexico and Peru, where previously it had none, while a number of countries have expressed an interest in joining the deal.
‘‘All this means new opportunities for New Zealand to grow trade and jobs,’’ Jacobi said.
Charles Finny, a former diplomat and trade negotiator, said the comments of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that all parties were ready to sign a deal in about six weeks’ time.
This month Finny co-authored a report by the Asia Society Policy Institute, which urged the CPTPP countries to push ahead with a deal, ‘‘being prepared, if necessary, to proceed without all parties’’ – suggesting concerns that Canada may not be willing to sign.
But Finny claimed Canada’s reluctance at the APEC leaders’ meeting in Da Nang in late 2017 appeared to be tactical.
‘‘As I understand it, they [the Canadians] somehow went to the APEC leaders’ meeting without a mandate to finalise [the agreement] and so were somewhat surprised that it went so swimmingly,’’ he said.
Finny said it was not yet clear what had changed since the meeting in Da Nang, but there were reports that two more provisions of the original TPPA had been excluded, with an added provision around protecting cultural industries, to get Canada to sign.
‘‘Really, these aren’t major changes. It’s essentially TPPA as it was agreed, with some suspensions’’, which would not be suspended if the United States later decided to join.
BusinessNZ head Kirk Hope said the deal was worth signing.
‘‘New Zealand is a trading nation that depends on successful exporting to maintain and grow our wealth. The terms of trade matter greatly to us. The CPTPP will reduce the tariff burden on our producers, allowing New Zealand and New Zealanders to earn more overseas, while growing jobs and businesses here at home.’’
Not everyone has gushed at the benefit of the deal.
Michael Reddell, a former Reserve Bank economist, wrote on his blog that there was little hard evidence of the deal’s benefits.
‘‘These agreements keep officials busy, and ministers of trade looking as if they are ‘doing something’, but there isn’t much evidence (net) that they are making New Zealanders as a whole better off,’’ Reddell wrote.