Felicity Roxburgh appointed Executive Director of New Zealand International Business Forum
The New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF) has announced Felicity Roxburgh will take over as its new executive director.
The fact that the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference reached some agreement in Nairobi was both pleasing and relieving.
That's what Stephen Jacobi says, executive director, New Zealand International Business Forum.
That is especially the case given the inability of the WTO to agree on much at all in recent years, he told Dairy News.
"The outcome from the Ministerial was better than I expected," he says.
"The agreement on export subsidies is significant for NZ even if, disappointingly, some countries like Canada and Norway get to continue to use them for a few years.
"The agreement is more in the way of a political understanding because it cannot be enforced through dispute settlement. Use of export subsidies by major economies like the EU and US has been less of a problem more recently but this agreement will make it harder for them to be used in the future."
The outcome on the Doha Development Agenda was disappointing, he says.
The Doha Development Agenda (DDA) started in November 2001 under then director-general and New Zealand Mike Moore with the objective to lower trade barriers around the world, and facilitate increased global trade.
"The US and EU appear to have concluded that Doha is over and even if it isn't over technically, it might as well be. That is not good news for the global trading system and especially for developing countries," says Jacobi.
Jacobi says he is also concerned at the delay in bringing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) into force (NZ ratified last September).
"If something as straightforward as the TFA cannot be quickly implemented, one wonders about other more substantive matters," he says.
The TFA contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods including cooperation between customs and other similar authorities, according to the WTO website.
However Jacobi says the decision to expand the Information Technology Agreement was also positive – and shows the WTO can work if members set their mind to it.
The aim of that treaty is to lower taxes and tariffs on information technology products.
People affected by the recent two severe flood events in the Tasman district are weary and exhausted trying to deal with the devastation on their farms and orchards, according to the head of the Rural Support Trust (RST) in the region.
New Zealand milk production is off to a strong start, with the first month of the 2025/26 dairy season recording a whopping 17.8% jump in milk production, compared to the previous season.
With adverse weather set to rain down on the Top of the South, the Bay of Plenty and parts of Northland, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says farmers, foresters, and growers need to prepare for possible challenges.
Keep up with innovation and e-commerce in China or risk losing market share. That was the message delivered at the China Business Summit in Auckland this month.
Meat Industry Association (MIA) independent chair Nathan Guy says getting meat processors involved has been a shot in the arm for the sector's key marketing initiative into China, Taste Pure Nature.
Listed carpet manufacturer, Bremworth is undertaking a $6 million expansion at its Napier plant more than two years after the site was heavily damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle.
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