Latest / Best of Business / Nicola Willis: Finance Minister on whether the Government can get a better deal from the Trump administration

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Nicola Willis: Finance Minister on whether the Government can get a better deal from the Trump administration · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: And Nicolaus the Finance Ministers with US Hi, Nicola good Na, Heather?
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  Speaker 2: Do you reckon this?
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  Speaker 3: Is it?
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  Speaker 2: On the tariffs? We won't get a better deal?
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  Speaker 3: Well? I think there is the possibility that we could,
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  Speaker 3: in particular because the blunt reason why we're facing fifteen
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  Speaker 3: percent is that in the most recent year we had
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  Speaker 3: a trade deficit with the US. We sold them more
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  Speaker 3: than we bought from them. But that has changed year
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  Speaker 3: to year over the past decade, and we could expect
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  Speaker 3: it to change in the future. So the question for
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  Speaker 3: US is if it does change, does that mean we
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  Speaker 3: get better treatment?
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  Speaker 2: So do you think this is something that they are
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  Speaker 2: going to keep revising as we go along?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I would simply observe that they have continued to
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  Speaker 3: revise their position on tariffs pretty continuously, and so it's
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  Speaker 3: not impossible to imagine that that could continue into.
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  Speaker 2: The But then isn't that something that's going to fluctuate
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  Speaker 2: every single time we go into deficitle super from their
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  Speaker 2: point of view, Look.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know the answer to that, but that's exactly heavily.
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  Speaker 2: Is it possible you've being overly hopeful here, because I
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  Speaker 2: mean this seems to me to have been locked in
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  Speaker 2: at a point in time, and now Australia is it's
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  Speaker 2: on ten percent and we sit on fifteen percent, and
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  Speaker 2: I can't imagine that they're going to put the effort
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  Speaker 2: into keeping on changing this every single time every single
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  Speaker 2: country goes into a different position.
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  Speaker 3: This just means I'm being resolute, which is that we
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  Speaker 3: need to take every opportunity and angle to push the
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  Speaker 3: best case for our exporters, and we do think we
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  Speaker 3: have a strong case. How that will be met by
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  Speaker 3: the US administration is yet to unfold. But if this
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  Speaker 3: is about trade deficits and surpluses and that's a changing position,
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  Speaker 3: then we would hope that the tariff could change.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So what's our strong case that we're taking to.
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  Speaker 3: Them First, That we have a very balanced and complementary relationship,
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  Speaker 3: that we're a very good and long standing friend of
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  Speaker 3: the US, that our trade is complementary and non threatening,
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  Speaker 3: and that we do expect to be buying quite a
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  Speaker 3: lot from the US in the coming few years, and
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  Speaker 3: that we'd like that reflected in Our.
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  Speaker 2: Tower position is that with the Boeings.
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  Speaker 3: Well with our general defense procurement, we've made a big
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  Speaker 3: commitment to building the capability of our defense force across
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  Speaker 3: a number of areas. We y'd expect US manufacturers would
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  Speaker 3: be some of those bidding for the contracts.
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  Speaker 2: Had we thought about possibly removing all the tariffs that
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  Speaker 2: we slap on US goods.
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  Speaker 3: Well, all of those things are potential considerations in a negotiation,
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  Speaker 3: but at this point, we already have incredibly low tariffs
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  Speaker 3: on US goods, so we don't actually have that much
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  Speaker 3: to bring to the table. And that's one of the
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  Speaker 3: points that we've been making. We're not a country that's
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  Speaker 3: been playing fast and loose. We haven't tried to break the.
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  Speaker 2: Rules their footwear. We slap with ten percent.
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  Speaker 3: That's all that low, which is low relative to a
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  Speaker 3: lot of other countries.
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  Speaker 2: We're getting percent, and we're moaning about that.
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  Speaker 3: So in terms but overall, in terms of how much
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  Speaker 3: we import from the States, the average tariff rate across
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  Speaker 3: what we actually import large amounts of lower than that.
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  Speaker 3: Heither and our reciprocal tariffs are much lower than they
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  Speaker 3: are and lots of the other countries. So we've got
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  Speaker 3: a good case.
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  Speaker 2: What about if we because I know that they're apparently
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  Speaker 2: annoyed about our biosecurity regime with some of their exports
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  Speaker 2: imports for US, would we consider having a look at that.
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  Speaker 3: Well, those are always things that we look at because
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  Speaker 3: we play by the rules, which is we don't use
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  Speaker 3: our biosecurity regime as an excuse for restricting an importation
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  Speaker 3: of products. If it's ever perceived that we are, we're
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  Speaker 3: always prepared to look at it. But this is a
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  Speaker 3: case where anything that we do at our end we
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  Speaker 3: want to lead to advantage for our exporters at the
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  Speaker 3: US end. So those are the issues that our negotiators
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  Speaker 3: will be stepping out.
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  Speaker 2: Why didn't we send Vangelis Vitalis before.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the very clear indication that we had at the
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  Speaker 3: ministerial level was that we were not on the naughty list,
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  Speaker 3: We weren't on the bad list, and that making efforts
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  Speaker 3: to get negotiation weren't going to be successful because we
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  Speaker 3: simply weren't on the list of people that were at risk.
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  Speaker 3: And as it's played out, really there was an exception
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  Speaker 3: made for Australia based on that blunt assessment that they
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  Speaker 3: export more to the US than they import from the US,
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  Speaker 3: and nothing we negotiated would have changed that.
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  Speaker 2: Blunt fat Now, talk me through these dock charges. How
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  Speaker 2: are we going to do this at for example, let's
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  Speaker 2: say Cathedral Cove.
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  Speaker 3: Well, a lot of people who go to Cathedral Cove
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  Speaker 3: go on a boat as part of a tour group.
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  Speaker 3: So you could envisage that potentially that tour group would
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  Speaker 3: put the charge directly to those people they're putting on
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  Speaker 3: the boat. You could also imagine that for those who
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  Speaker 3: walk in, you could have some sort of a turnstile.
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  Speaker 3: Technology these days is pretty advanced in terms of what
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  Speaker 3: perhaps we can have on our phone elsewhere. That's one
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  Speaker 3: of the issues that we will be consulting with the
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  Speaker 3: industry about over the coming months. It cannot be too
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  Speaker 3: hard to charge a simple fee for international tourists to
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  Speaker 3: see one of the most beautiful places in the country.
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  Speaker 3: What every other country around the world manages to do it.
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  Speaker 3: And anyone who says to me, oh, it's too complicated,
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  Speaker 3: I say, come on, this is pretty simple.
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  Speaker 2: Really Okay, Now I like the sound of that. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: are you going to fix or change anything about the
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  Speaker 2: surcharge ban as it is right now? Because you cannot
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  Speaker 2: tell me that you are going to do this to
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  Speaker 2: some of your voters months before the election.
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  Speaker 3: The first thing that I want to fix is I
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  Speaker 3: want small businesses to hear this message, which they didn't
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  Speaker 3: hear I think in some cases. Which is the first
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  Speaker 3: thing that happened was the Commerce Commission regulated what prices
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  Speaker 3: MasterCard and Visa can charge you for your merchant fees
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  Speaker 3: and for your pay services, and they have mandated that
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  Speaker 3: those costs need to reduce significantly by tens of millions,
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  Speaker 3: which will have a cost reduction.
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  Speaker 2: Come on, Nicholas, it's nineteen million dollars it out of
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  Speaker 2: about a billion. It's it's small change. And then add
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  Speaker 2: on to that everything else that gets charged on top
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  Speaker 2: of Visa and MasterCard, the retail banks, it's massive. That
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  Speaker 2: made no difference. What are you going to change because
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  Speaker 2: you cannot do this to small and medium sized businesses.
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  Speaker 3: It is a significant cost reduction. The second thing is
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  Speaker 3: that we are expecting the Commerce Commission to work with
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  Speaker 3: the banks to provide businesses much more clear, transparent and
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  Speaker 3: easily comparable price information to allow businesses to negotiate with Nikolas.
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  Speaker 2: You will know, Nicola, Come on, if you put this
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  Speaker 2: on on businesses and you force them to absorb this
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  Speaker 2: mid next year, midwinter, just before you go to the election.
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  Speaker 2: You know you're going to lose voters.
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  Speaker 1: You can't do this.
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  Speaker 3: Well, here's the principled point, which I think is important.
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  Speaker 3: We do know that consumers in New Zealand are currently
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  Speaker 3: paying tens of millions and excess to charges. The Commerce
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  Speaker 3: Commission have done a lot of work on this. We
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  Speaker 3: have a culture in our country which I appreciate as
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  Speaker 3: a consumer, Unlike some countries around the world. The price
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  Speaker 3: you see on the tag is the price you pay
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  Speaker 3: at the till, and you don't get to the till
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  Speaker 3: and then have vat you added this charge and that charge.
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  Speaker 3: And what that does is empowers consumers to know is
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  Speaker 3: cheaper here or down the road. And we don't think
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  Speaker 3: that the merchant payWave schemes are enough of a justification
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  Speaker 3: for changing that long standing practice. Now, individual retailers will
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  Speaker 3: manage this in different ways, but we are confident that
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  Speaker 3: can be managed and that the consumer will win out
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  Speaker 3: of it and that small businesses will adapt.
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  Speaker 2: All right. Now, on the road Cones tipline, can I
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  Speaker 2: implore you to get rid of this thing? Because it's pointless.
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  Speaker 3: Well, actually, you know Van Velden brought it in for
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  Speaker 3: a reason she sent to her agency.
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  Speaker 2: Come on, you know it does nothing. You know that
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  Speaker 2: all it does is it goes in checks that they've
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  Speaker 2: got as many road cones laid out as the onerous
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  Speaker 2: rules require them to. And it's costing us. What is
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  Speaker 2: it like four hundred thousand dollars to run the thing?
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  Speaker 2: Get rid of it, save the money.
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  Speaker 3: Well here's the thing. So as as a government, the
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  Speaker 3: last government was spending seven hundred and eighty six million
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  Speaker 3: dollars on temporary traffic management. We've brought those costs down
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  Speaker 3: massively for our own road projects. But what we've observed
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  Speaker 3: is that a lot of counts around the country haven't
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  Speaker 3: done that.
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  Speaker 2: That's why Bush's idea is fantastic. Right, So Bush is saying,
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  Speaker 2: if you don't follow the rules and go for fewer cones,
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  Speaker 2: we're worthholding money. But which makes it makes Brooks tip
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  Speaker 2: line just a performance So cut it.
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, it's belt embraces approach. Here is what I
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  Speaker 3: would describe it as. On the one hand, we are
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  Speaker 3: mandating that for councils that they have to update their
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  Speaker 3: guidance and their approach. And on the other hand, we're
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  Speaker 3: empowering ratepayers that if they see it looking bad, they
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  Speaker 3: can tip us off and gives us a clear basis
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  Speaker 3: on which to follow up.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Nichola, thanks very much, appreciated. Look after yourself.
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  Speaker 2: That's Nicola Willis, the Finance Minister.
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