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Fiona Cooper: NZUS Council Executive Director on today's US Business Summit · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've got the United States Business Summit meeting today. Policymakers, diplomats,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: business heavyweights, all that sort of stuff. They talk trade
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: in tariffs and commercial opportunities. US a big deal, still
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: second largest export market, over thirty billion dollars worth of business.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Fiona Cooper, Executive director of the NZI United States Councilors
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  Speaker 1: with US Fiona.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning mate.
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  Speaker 1: When you gather together New Zealanders and Americans, are these
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  Speaker 1: unusual times or business as usual or somewhere in between.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: These are new times. These are different times, and that's
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  Speaker 2: why the theme of the event today is America's new playbook.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: You know, we're all adjusting to America's new rules of
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the game for international trade.
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  Speaker 1: The tariff's story, How is it a good story? A
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  Speaker 1: negative story? Who was still trying to work it out?
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  Speaker 2: Well? A year ago we were all terribly worried about
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: what was in store, and certainly it has been a
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  Speaker 2: real challenge for a lot of our sectors. But nonetheless,
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  Speaker 2: for many products, prices are holding up in the United
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: States and their strong demand, so the impact hasn't been
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: as bad for every sector as we had feared.
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  Speaker 1: Is there still some stuff to comes from on that though.
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  Speaker 1: Is there still some information to come through on that
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  Speaker 1: or we don't know.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure there is. It will be interesting to see,
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  Speaker 2: you know, how the trade stats are looking, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in the new year, to see what the impact has been.
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  Speaker 2: And of course we're all waiting to see what the
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  Speaker 2: Supreme Court says about the legality of these reciprocal tariffs,
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  Speaker 2: so that could change things again. Although nobody I think
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  Speaker 2: is expecting tariffs to disappear completely. They'll find another way
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  Speaker 2: if the current tariff structure is not permitted.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, what what's the view on America? I mean, a
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  Speaker 1: lot of countries are looking for alternative markets if it
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  Speaker 1: gets too complicated. Are we in that or not?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, every company makes decisions about where to
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  Speaker 2: place its product. But the fact is in the US
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  Speaker 2: is a huge and very lucrative market. That's why it's
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  Speaker 2: one about you know, top trading partners and we're doing
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  Speaker 2: great businessiness there. And so I think today is about
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  Speaker 2: sharing stories around how we navigate this tariff turbulence, but
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  Speaker 2: at the same time sees those opportunities in technology, investment, education, aerospace, agribusiness,
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  Speaker 2: you name it. There's still tons of opportunity in the USA.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: You make a very good point because so much focus
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  Speaker 1: is on things like beef how much I mean you
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  Speaker 1: talk about tech. Where are the growth areas outside of
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  Speaker 1: US growing food for Americans?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, we do a great business in exporting
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  Speaker 2: machinery to the United States. So a lot of New
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  Speaker 2: Zealand's high tech stuff is contributing to US supply chains
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  Speaker 2: and that's going very well. So I think the tech sector,
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  Speaker 2: the services sector is going absolute gangbusters in the United States.
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  Speaker 2: Fantastic business there. It's our largest services market. So, as
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  Speaker 2: I say, there's still tons of opportunity, but we have
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  Speaker 2: to at the same time as navigating these new challenges.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the uncertainty is interesting, isn't it. The unappreciate executive
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  Speaker 1: director of the New Zealand United States Council, Fiona Cooper Witherson.
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• 3:07
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• 3:10
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