Editorial: We are Trumped
OPINION: Nothing it seems can be done in the short term to get Donald Trump to change his mind about removing the unfair 15% tariffs that he’s imposed on New Zealand exports to the US.
Negotiations this week in Wellington are expected to further advance a free trade agreement (FTA) between New Zealand and the European Union (EU).
A large EU delegation and their NZ counterparts are working towards a hoped-for comprehensive and quality FTA by late 2019.
An inevitable sticking point will be agricultural tariff rate quotas (TRQs) and geographic indicators (GIs) especially in respect of dairy, e.g. a cheese name such as Gouda referring to its region of origin.
When the EU’s commissioner for agriculture and rural development, Phil Hogan, visited NZ in February he told Dairy News of good progress in the negotiations. He was optimistic that a quality deal would be struck.
Hogan described GIs as rural intellectual property in the EU and he noted they are well accepted in the NZ wine industry.
The FTA talks come as Brexit enters a hiatus: Britain’s departure is now scheduled for October 31 – Halloween, noted for tricks and treats.
Meanwhile, in London MPs and officials at the Houses of Parliament at Westminster are suffering a plague of mice running over desks and brazenly eating food on tables in MPs’ cafes.
All the while, say commentators, Theresa May must deal with a rat pack of ministers and MPs in House of Commons where Brexit is delayed.
Should Britain fail to leave the EU by Halloween and were the Brexit debate to spill over to 2020 it would be perhaps fitting: 2020 if the Chinese year of the rat.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…