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Todd McClay: Agriculture Minister on confidence is blooming among farmers · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Farmer confidence going through the roof. This is the new
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Rabobank survey and it is the second highest level in
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a decade. Higher prices, of course, rising demand for commodities.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Dairy farmers have the strongest investment intent, horticulturalists the weakest,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: joining us as Todd maclay, the Trade Minister, good morning.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Right, good morning, Yeah, good news all round.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Prices are good for now, so things are looking up.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's good news. A lot of farmers have been
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: doing it a bit tough for a number of years,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: so it's pleasing to see. But I think more importantly
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: it's very good for the New Zealand economy. We know
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: when the primary sector is doing well and prices are up,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: they start spending money and so we're starting to see
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: the green roots of growth coming from rural New Zealand.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: You've got this trade delegation underway at the moment, signing
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: five new commercial partnerships between Saudi's and New Zealand companies
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: worth one hundred million dollars. Can you tell us what
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: they're about?
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I'm up here with twenty two or twenty
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: three New Zealand companies. A range of companies who are
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: involved in sort of food production and export from some
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: of the honey companies, a couple of Mari honey companies. Actually,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: you're up here doing pretty well. And then we've got
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: others who are making films and some on like that.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: So this is just an opportunity for us to get
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: into Saudi, which is a big, big potential for New Zealand.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: You remember we concluded a trade agreement with the GCC
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  Speaker 2: including Saudi last year, and so this was just a
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: chance for them to sign some deals with either partners
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: have already had that sort of take their trade further,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: or new companies they're working with. I think that one
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  Speaker 2: hundred million dollars of the five deal side of day
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: is only the start of the opportunity up here. It's
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: just it's an economy that's growing and we with the
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: private sector, the government, the privacy can been putting in
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of effort and I think it's starting to
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: pay dividends.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: What do they want with WESA, Well, we.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: So weather have come up and signed a couple of
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: agreements with one of the Saudi princesses actually, and so
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: what that will be about is if you think about
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: down in New Zealand, done exhibitions in New Zealand. There's
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: a bit of filming and so on. So as Saudi
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Arabia is investing heavily in their economy to open up,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: they want culture and tourism to be on show. And
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: some of the suggestion is wetter will pay our ready
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: big part in one telling the story and too, how
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: you know how to bring visitors in and show them
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: more than just sand dune's and dunes and nice pictures.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start. I've got three really quick questions
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: for you. One on the meat day target review. Have
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: you got any result to update farmers on this morning?
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: So working through that. There's a cabinet process we're working
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: through now, so I'm going to respect my colleagues, but
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: we're not too far away. I can give every farmer
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: and every New zealand and assurance we will be sensible.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: We have to meet our obligations and targets or obligations internationally,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: but we're not going to close down farms and sends
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: job and production overseas. Along the way.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: A lot of calls to sanction Israel. By my numbers
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: our trade, their exports to New Zealand worth only about
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: zero point three percent to them. Have you done any
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: work or got any advice on that?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: No, I haven't. Out of the Minister our Foreign Affairs
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: or we've been talking a lot more about that quite soon.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: In the government's position.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: There's monthly meetings with officials from the US on updating. Yes,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: it's fifteen percent the tariff right now, but we wanted
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: some clarity going forward. Do you have any for exporters
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: this morning?
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: So we're still working at that. You know. The interesting
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: thing is I'm here and elsewhere around the world talking
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: to others, they too are facing uncertainty. I think that
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: at the moment the evidence is suggesting that uncertainty is
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: causing greater harm than the tariff rate. We are working
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: through one of the things as if we go back
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: to a trade deficit, the US has a trade surplus
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: against US, how does that rate come down, and how
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: do we get at so it won't keep moving. So
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: look that we're putting every single effort in that we can.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Almost every other country in the world has the same
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: degree of uncertainty. The very good news, I suppose, though,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: as our exports are nimbal and many of them are
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: choosing to look to other markets. You know at the
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: time that we are facing higher tariffs in the US
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: sold extra billion dollars to the EU over the last year,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: which is predominantly from the primary sector, and so there
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: are still lots of opportunities, but the US, for every
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: trading nation, is a confused market at the moment.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time even though the uncertain tea rains. Minister
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Tod McLay with US Live this morning.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 4:21
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• 4:24
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