Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the Deputy Secretary of Trade calling for New Zealand to diversify trading partners

The golden era of trade is over and New Zealand needs to push hard to diversify its trading partners, according to a warning from the Deputy Secretary of Trade. 

During the Primary Industries Conference, Vangelis Vitalis said primary industry exports went through a boom between 1995 and 2017 but since then, things have become much harder.

The Country's Jamie Mackay unpack the issue further.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jamie McKay, Hosts of the Countries with US. Hello Jamie,
Hello Heather.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Sorry, I'm in two conversations. I need to concentrate on you.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Who are you chatting with?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Am my wife?

Speaker 1 (00:10):
I not fair enough she generally, I mean I can
understand that. Generally, she would take precedence over literally everybody except.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I normally don't. I normally do mostly listening. She does
most of the talking. But occasion I was talking.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Oh, I bet she appreciated that coman a lot. Hey,
it's a bit gloomy to think the golden era of
trade is over. But I mean that's probably realistic, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, in some ways it is. And this was the
statement made by Vangallis Batalas. What a great name. He
sounds like an Argentina Argentina and tennis player from the seventies,
doesn't he like Cavita Scirolitis and guilmero Velis. I'm getting
a way off track, Sorry there, Heather. Yeah. Like he said,
we went through a primary export boom between ninety five

(00:52):
and twenty seventeen, and he said since then, things have
got a lot harder. And he used the example of
superpowers like the US and China who are basically making
up the rules to suit themselves, and we the smaller
and medium states like New Zealand are increasingly becoming collateral damage.
And we might need to get used to that either,
because if Trump gets the White House, he is rather

(01:16):
insular when it comes to trade, he said New Zealand.
This was his addressed to the Primary Industry summit yesterday morning.
He said New Zealand couldn't afford to rest on its laurels,
especially if we want to reach the goal, the government's
current goal of doubling the value of exports in the
next decade. At the moment, New Zealand's all about China.

(01:38):
They take twenty three percent of their total exports. But
you know, he made the point, we also have the
cp tpp I. Hope I've got enough peas in there,
the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Transpecific Partnership, and that
actually takes twenty seven percent of our trade. And then
he said, if you throw in the Assian Nation Association

(02:01):
of South East Asian Nations, that's the very that's the
growing market of Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia. That's you know, potentially,
and this is what a lot of people are telling me,
that is where our future life Southeast Asia.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, I mean that probably is actually right. And you
just got to got cobble a hole bunch of those
all small ones together and you get the big one altogether.
Like you kind of you get enough to be a
big one. On those awards that you were at on Tuesday,
I think you predicted, if I remember correctly, that Julian
Rain was going to win, didn't you.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well, no, I didn't. I mean Julian along with the
South was a finalist, and I thought Van gals Vitalis
would win because I mean, let's be honest, you did
negotiate a free trade agreement with the UK and the EU.
But I was really pleased that Julian Rain wanted He
absolutely deserves it. He's been around forever, even longer than me,

(02:53):
and he's been into like dairy and horticulture. He's a
real entrepreneurs. He's been the president of Horticulture in New Zealand.
He was one of the instigators of the y Mean
Dam project which is transforming that region in New Zealand,
and he was a bit only found this out on
the night he was about when they set up on
Terra in two thousand and one. So, look, he's had

(03:14):
a finger and a lot of pies. He's a real entrepreneur.
He's got his own ice cream and milk brands, and
he's just a quiet, humble man, very very clever bloke,
and at at the peak of the season, I think
he employs five or six hundred people. So I was
really pleased from absolutely deserved.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Did Todd Charteris of Rubbobank come and tell you off
for your outfit?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah? Yeah, I was just I was making my way
to get my first drink for the evening and he
comes up and says, where's your tie? I said, well,
what does it worry you? He said, oh, here, there's
been chipping away at you on ZDB for not wearing
a tie.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Good loved man.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Here, If I honestly thought I even had half a
snuff of the big Gong, oh you would have put
on a tie. So really it was just me protecting my.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
So oh fair enough, Jamie. Look everybody's allowed a little
bit of self protection. Good on you, Jamie. Jamie mckaie,
hosts of the Country Good on Todd Charteris of rubber
Bank being a man of his word. For more from
Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to News Talks d
B from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.