Latest / Best of Business / Catherine Beard: Business NZ Advocacy Director on the potential impact of US tariffs on NZ exporters

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Catherine Beard: Business NZ Advocacy Director on the potential impact of US tariffs on NZ exporters · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sedbe follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Time for the second good news story of the day.
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  Speaker 2: The US is our second largest export market. It overtook Australia.
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  Speaker 2: China is now number one. Katherine Beard joins me now.
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  Speaker 2: She is the advocacy director for Export New Zealand.
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  Speaker 1: Hello Catherine, good morning.
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  Speaker 2: So what drove it up? What spiked it over Australia?
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  Speaker 2: What's working? What are we selling? Look?
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  Speaker 3: A lot of it's been driven actually by beef exports,
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  Speaker 3: and that beef has been used in hamburger patties and
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  Speaker 3: what seems to be really well received as the grass
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  Speaker 3: fed New Zealand beef. And I think they mix it
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  Speaker 3: with grain feed USA beef, so they get the fat
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  Speaker 3: from the US beef and the nice lean beef from
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: That is very good. I love a good New Zealand beef. Now,
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  Speaker 2: is this rise in US exports balancing out the lack
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  Speaker 2: of demand in China as their economy stagnates a little bit?
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  Speaker 3: Look, it's definitely helping. China is hugely important to New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: But what is remarkable about the US skiing into the
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  Speaker 3: number two spot for our exports is we don't actually
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  Speaker 3: have a free trade agreement with the United States, So
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  Speaker 3: it just goes to show that it's actually a very
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  Speaker 3: open market. And while there are some tariffs, you know,
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  Speaker 3: they're not high enough to be preventing that trade happening.
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  Speaker 3: I think the key WE dollar is probably helping as well,
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  Speaker 3: and that it's quite low versus the US dollars, so
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  Speaker 3: that's going to make our beef, you know, quite affordable.
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  Speaker 2: But if we're hoping for a free traded agreement, if
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  Speaker 2: we're hoping for a better market to go to, the
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  Speaker 2: chances of that happening are very low under the current
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  Speaker 2: administration in the United States of America. So what challenges
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  Speaker 2: will that provide?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So the big challenge and worry that
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  Speaker 3: I think a lot of countries have and everybody's watching
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  Speaker 3: it closely, is what the United States will do with
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  Speaker 3: regard to tariffs. So we're definitely keeping an eye on that.
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  Speaker 3: If the United States puts on blanket tariffs for all imports,
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  Speaker 3: then that wouldn't be so bad for us because we'd
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  Speaker 3: still be competitive. I mean, it means everybody's being taxed
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  Speaker 3: at the same rate essentially, so yet that cost would
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  Speaker 3: then fall on the USA consumer, but we would still
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  Speaker 3: be competitive. So we just have to watch and wait
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  Speaker 3: and see. Our trade balance with the United States is
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  Speaker 3: quite even, so you know we important export about the same.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's not hugely different in terms of value,
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  Speaker 3: so I can't really see New Zealand being picked out.
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  Speaker 3: So let's just let's just keep our fingers crossed.
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  Speaker 2: Execu wators. When you have an excess and when you
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  Speaker 2: have an imbalance, that's when you get picked upon it.
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  Speaker 2: And Casinbird, congratulations and I thank you for your time
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  Speaker 2: today because he directed for Export New Zealand.
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