Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Nathan Guy: Meat Industry Association Chair on the impact of Donald Trump's import tariffs on the NZ meat sector

Transcript

Nathan Guy: Meat Industry Association Chair on the impact of Donald Trump's import tariffs on the NZ meat sector · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So yesterday we heard from the former Prime Minister John Kee.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Have a listen.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: There is some downsides for New Zealand. I'm not trying
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: to sugarcoat that, and they do concern me because we
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: need trade. But I think it won't all be the
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: won't all be negative. It won't will be one way traffic.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The downsides. He's talking about Trump's tariffs and we have
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a number for you now from since partners could cost
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: our economy one point seven billion dollars every year. Nathan
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Guy is with the Meat Industry Association. He's the chair.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: He's currently up in Shanghai having meetings and attending an expo,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: an export expo. Great to have you on the show, Nathan.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: We had John Key on the shows today. You would
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: have heard he said, not sugar coating this. Tariffs will
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: be terrible for us. Do you agree this is a
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: big problem?
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, well, potentially. We just don't know at the moment. Ryan.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: We all like certainty, but on the back of the
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: new Trump administration, I guess we're all a bit concerned.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: But we're just going to have to breathe through it
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: over the next couple of months and see what happened
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: and hell of a lot of speculation. No one quite knows,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: but certainly if there is a tariff of ten or
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: twenty percent, it will impact the primary sector pretty hard.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: But ultimately it's going to hurt the US consumers even
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: harder because they're going to have to pay more for
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: the likes of red meat or burger patties that we produce.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Do you think because we produce food, we might be
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: in a better position because Trump might not want to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: increase tariffs and therefore prices on food items.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: I'm hoping that because of our reputation that we can
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: keep our head down and hopefully miss a massive tariff implication.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I'm also mindful of the fact that they've had a
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: massive drought over there and the beef herd has been decimated.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: It's going to take a couple of years to rebuild.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: We're already seeing early indications are very strong pricing for
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: New Zealand grinding meat into the US. So if they
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: don't get it from US, they're going to have to
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: get it from somewhere else. I reckon our reputation is
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: going to be paramount up there, and it is. Our
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: reputation is really good. So here's hoping fingers and toes
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: cross that we can sneak through.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Our diplomats have got a big job in Washington, DC.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Is that would the top priority be some kind of
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: exemption like the Aussie's got with aluminium and steel.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: That would be fantastic. Our ambassador up their banks has
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: got very close links to the Republican Party as I
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: understand it. Meat companies in New Zealand have got strong
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: links with customers through to the Republicans as well, So
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I guess we'll try all of those different communication channels.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: The relationship strong, so hopefully we can avoid it.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: We're better off with banks than we would be with
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Kevin Rudd by the sounds of it.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I won't go there.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Hey, the estimated cost potential costs since partners reckons could
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: be one point seven six billion dollars to our exporters.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: We're about eight billion of exports up in the US,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: nearly three billion of red meat. It's very big market
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: for US. I don't know if it will be that much.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Once again, you know a lot of speculation. I think
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: we've just got to have cool heads, just work through it,
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: play the relationship card, honest brokers, and just see what happens.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Try and get as much into China, I suppose as
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: we can, which is why you're there. How fierst is competition.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Up here right now, very face, we had a very
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: successful FDA, We were the first, had the first move advantage.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: There's forty two countries now that have got similar access
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: to what we've got. So we're pushing hard on our
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Taste Pure Nature initiative, which is really selling our attributes
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: of grass fed high and nutrition and animals outdoors, all
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: of those fantastic things that our farmers do back in
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: enz world leading food safety standards, and there is a
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: few green shoots up here at the moment. We're seeing
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: that consumer spenders starting to tick up, so we're optimistic
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: that we can sell more into this market, but it's
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: still going to be a few headwinds.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Nathan, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Cheers, Ryan, thank you.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Listen live to news Talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.