Latest / Best of Business / Todd McClay: Trade Minister outlines the costs of Trump's tariffs for New Zealand

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Todd McClay: Trade Minister outlines the costs of Trump's tariffs for New Zealand · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
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  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. Right,
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  Speaker 1: I am Bridge Rich.
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  Speaker 2: Let's talk about how Trump's new tariffs are going to
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  Speaker 2: affect us here down Under. As we've been talking about,
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  Speaker 2: He's putting a blanket twenty five percent tariff on all
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  Speaker 2: steel and aluminium entering the United States. New Zealand exported
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  Speaker 2: about seventy million dollars worth of aluminium and eighty eight
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  Speaker 2: million dollars worth of iron and steel to the States
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three. President says the new tariffs will
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  Speaker 2: be a good thing for American consumers.
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  Speaker 3: You're going to ultimately have a price reduction because they're
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  Speaker 3: going to make this steal here.
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  Speaker 1: There's not going to be any tariff.
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  Speaker 3: These foreign companies will move to the United States, will
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  Speaker 3: make this deal and aluminum in the United States.
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  Speaker 1: Ultimately it'll be cheaper.
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  Speaker 3: But we'll also have jobs, many many more jobs.
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  Speaker 2: Topic Clay, Trade and Investment Ministries with US now, Minister
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  Speaker 2: Good evening.
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  Speaker 3: Ryan, Good evening.
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  Speaker 2: So how bad is this for us?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's not at all so prising, And I think
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  Speaker 3: I probably said that when I was on the show
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  Speaker 3: last week. And the reason for that is when President
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  Speaker 3: Trump came to off Us last time, he focused on
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  Speaker 3: stealing al aluminium and they have particular concerns around the
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  Speaker 3: so called steel about there where they have a lot
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  Speaker 3: of manufacturing and they are viewing this unfair competition. So
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  Speaker 3: for New Zealand exporters, we will face about an extra
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  Speaker 3: five million dollars of tariffs plus or minus. That's on
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  Speaker 3: about one hundred and fifty million dollars total of exports.
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  Speaker 3: So it's not significant, particularly compared to the amount of
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  Speaker 3: beef and wine and other things we sell to them.
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  Speaker 3: But we are going to take a little bit of
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  Speaker 3: time to have a good look that fully understand it,
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  Speaker 3: and then I'll get a bit of device on whether
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  Speaker 3: we should approach the US to seek an exemption, as
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  Speaker 3: I see some other countries, including Australia, are considering doing it.
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  Speaker 2: You haven't done that already, Well, we.
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  Speaker 3: Haven't, No, we haven't because the out well because the
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  Speaker 3: announcement has just come out doing.
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  Speaker 1: The Astralia.
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  Speaker 2: And they had a call Albaneze had a call with
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  Speaker 2: Trump ahead of the announcement.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think if you look at the amount
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  Speaker 3: of steel that the Australians sell to the US, can
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  Speaker 3: you compare to us? It's a much larger and more
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  Speaker 3: significant part of their trade. So it's not that we're
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  Speaker 3: going slow. It's just that we're talking about five million
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  Speaker 3: dollars worth of tariffs, and actually I want to have
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  Speaker 3: a ready good understanding of that compared to the many
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  Speaker 3: other things we sell them before.
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  Speaker 2: I understand that it did come on the program. The
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  Speaker 2: first thing you said was it was not surprising that
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  Speaker 2: it was coming, and you said last time it was coming.
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  Speaker 2: I just assumed you would have done some work in
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  Speaker 2: the meantime. Do you know what implications that might have
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  Speaker 2: for two way point?
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  Speaker 3: Well, actually we have done a lot of work as
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  Speaker 3: opposed to not doing any in the meantime. We've done
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  Speaker 3: a lot of work on us. But I'm saying to
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  Speaker 3: you it's five million dollars worth of additional tariffs compared
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  Speaker 3: to you know, the billions of dollars we're selling the mouseware.
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  Speaker 3: So we need to one, you know, take that into account.
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  Speaker 3: And then secondly, what we also need to do is,
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  Speaker 3: you know, look at the overall approach are about tey points.
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  Speaker 3: It is going to have some effect upon them. Although
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  Speaker 3: very Interestingly, when President Trump pulled tariffs on aluminium last time,
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  Speaker 3: there was a lot of conversation, particularly with the company
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  Speaker 3: that owns that with the US because of the quality
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  Speaker 3: of the aluminum. It's very high quality. They don't get
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  Speaker 3: it from any other places, and so one of the
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  Speaker 3: things we need to do is talk to the owners
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  Speaker 3: of that company about exactly their approach to this to
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  Speaker 3: make sure that we're not jumping ahead.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's high quality aluminium and it's often
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  Speaker 2: used for the defense industry, for which there are a
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  Speaker 2: few other suppliers. So that's why they were given an
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  Speaker 2: exemption last time. But you're saying you haven't even spoken
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  Speaker 2: to t y point yet.
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  Speaker 3: What I'm saying to what I'm saying to is the
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  Speaker 3: announcement was a few hours ago and we're.
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  Speaker 2: Talking you know it was coming, remember, minister.
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  Speaker 3: And we're talking about five million dollars of additional tariff
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  Speaker 3: to give you an example, to give you an example
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  Speaker 3: of that. You know, by comparison to the amount of
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  Speaker 3: aluminium we sell them, we sell them one hundred and
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  Speaker 3: twenty million dollars worth of pet food up there, So
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  Speaker 3: let's keep it in context. Yes, there will be a
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  Speaker 3: cost to New Zealand as a result of this, but
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  Speaker 3: it is not significant in companion and comparison to the
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  Speaker 3: many other things that we sell them. So we haven't
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  Speaker 3: had an opportunity to talk to the US yet because
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  Speaker 3: it's just been announced. We will take a little bit
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  Speaker 3: of time to consider the impact upon US and actually
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  Speaker 3: exactly what we be right to talk to the US
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  Speaker 3: about for that company.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I'm sure, I'm sure is a significant number for
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  Speaker 2: the likes of T y Point. It's really targeted at
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  Speaker 2: subsidies for steel in China. Does China dump steel?
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  Speaker 3: I don't have a view of what they do in
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  Speaker 3: the US market. What about how much dan they dot
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  Speaker 3: in xen although they're having investigations in the past in
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  Speaker 3: that area and the Commress ministery responsible that has provide
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  Speaker 3: information to success and governments that that is not the case.
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  Speaker 3: But we do have the ability to look at that
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  Speaker 3: where you know, players in our market think there's harms
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  Speaker 3: being done. Just when I come back to your point,
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  Speaker 3: you said you think that that is significant for a
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  Speaker 3: T y point. You know, five million dollars is important
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  Speaker 3: to any company, but the amount that they export all
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  Speaker 3: over the world by comparison to five million dollar and
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  Speaker 3: additional tariffs is something we want to have a better
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  Speaker 3: understanding of with them.
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  Speaker 2: Tom McClay, really appreciate your time, Trade and Investment Minister.
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