2024 red meat exports end on a high
New Zealand's red meat exports for 2024 finished on a positive note, with total export value increasing 17% over last December to reach $1.04 billion, according to the Meat Industry Association (MIA).
The deal will remove tariffs on wood products across the 12 TPP countries.
"We have yet to see the detail, but we understand that all tariffs on logs and wood products will be reduced to zero. That represents a $9 million saving," says Wood Council chair Bill McCallum.
"While this is not a huge sum in the context of a trade worth $1.5 billion, we anticipate there will be bigger prizes arising from the TPP Agreement."
McCallum says the TPP has focused on tariff reduction and elimination, however with wood products the Council suspects that non-tariff barriers are a much greater impediment to trade.
"Technical barriers that have no scientific justification can prevent the import or use of imported wood products. Subsidies enjoyed by domestic wood processors can also make it impossible for imports to compete fairly."
The Council says the TPP will help exporters of NZ processed wood products who have struggled in the past to compete in markets where they have been excluded by tariffs that escalate rapidly as value is added to a raw material.
"These lost opportunities are not included in the $9 million saving, because current tariffs make exports unprofitable." says McCallum.
