Thursday, 08 August 2024 07:55

Trade deals

Written by  Peter Burke
MPI director general Ray Smith MPI director general Ray Smith

Ray Smith says MPI has re-organised their part of the business which deals with market access and FTAs.

While MFAT plays the lead role in these, MPI provides much of the backroom data and technical information which back up such negotiations.

Clearly the spotlight is on India and Smith says MPI has been very active in building up the relationship with that country.

"We have had their National Dairy Development Board over here and that went incredibly well. We have been speaking at dairy related conferences in India. We think of India as a big and potential market where there are challenges and we are looking at what we can offer them in a potential deal," he says.

According to Smith, one option is to build relationships by helping them increase the productivity of their industry. He says NZ has a lot of know-how which could be of benefit to India.

The other reason for the re-organisation of the 'market access and trade areas' of MPI, says Smith, is to put more effort into helping farmers and others in the primary sector to get the maximum benefit out of existing FTAs and other trade agreements. He says such agreements are complex and the goal is to set out in simple terms the potential benefits.

More like this

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.

Featured

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

National

Machinery & Products

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Building trust

OPINION: The war of words between Southland farmers and Environment Southland over winter grazing inspections reflects a deep lack of trust…

No Joy

OPINION: Milking It understands a formal disciplinary process is being conducted by Victoria University of Wellington on what one of…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter