Todd McClay: Trade Minister on New Zealand's invite to the G7 forum

A significant global trade opportunity has arisen as New Zealand accepts its invitation to meet political powerhouses the G7. 

The Group of Seven forum consists of top trading nations including Japan, the UK, and the United States. 

New Zealand's been invited by Italy as we're a major trading partner to the European country. 

Trade Minister Todd McClay told Mike Hosking supply chain issues will be a major talking point. 

He says companies exporting to Europe are finding it harder due to shipping and geopolitical challenges. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let us head off for the first time to Italy
because for the first time we've been invited to a
G seven meeting. This one deals specifically with trade. So
what if anything tangible is going to come out of it?
Anyone of the Trade Minister, Todd McLay is with us
from it ly morning.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
To you, Hey, Mike, good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Is this a gab fest or something material comes out
of it?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, look, twenty five percent of the world's GDP is here.
These are you know, some of the big economies. So
for New Zealand to be invited to come along for
the first time is you know, it is quite a
big deal and it's a privilege and we get to
come and talk about the things that are important to
New Zealand to trade ministers from these other countries. One
of the things we're focusing on is supply chain and

(00:40):
you know, we already know that New Zealand companies exporting
to the UK Europe if funding get harder because of
challenges around shipping and geopolitics to get in there. So
anything we can do over the next couple of days
that makes it better and easier for New Zealand exporters
is you know, worth doing.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Tell me about this, the Rich Sea deployment which was
extended by your government the other day last week. I think,
is anyone there talking about why it hasn't worked? How
come the world's military isn't in that area freeing the
thing up for ships to actually move. It's been going
on for months.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, well, look, I think the answer that is working
because it's not getting a lot worse. But you're right,
it's a very complicated issue there. One of the things
we're going to be talking about supply chain is not
when there is a challenge of problem somewhere in the world,
what can we do to make, you know, to build
resilience so that like minded countries in Europe, Japan elsewhere
can work together and actually make sure that you know,

(01:31):
goods and services get to market a lot more, a
lot more easily. So I'm very pleased that we're talking
about that. The other thing I'll be raising is these
non tariff barriers, these standards and someone that get in
the way of New Zealand exports. We think there's about
twelve billion dollars lost in New Zealand economy or exports
as a result of the standards are put in place
around the world, and so I'll be talking to these

(01:53):
trade ministers as the big economies about ways that we
can work together get the barriers down so cubes can
sell more over.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
How much is China a talking point? We've got some
fairly ordinary numbers out of them yesterday. How many of
your countries, the G seven countries, the people in that
room actually rely on China to be doing a bit
better than they are.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, I think everybody buys and sells from China. You know,
they're a pretty big part of the world's economy and
a lot of GDP. But you know, if you think
about the European Union. In New Zealand, for instance, we've
got the FTA which we were able to get into
force many months earlier than expected. I have been having
a look around since we arrived in Italy yesterday and

(02:31):
there are signs up all over the place from Zesbury
advertising New Zealand Kiwi fruit here, and of course we
got that into the market their season duty free, Tara free.
So you know, whilst there is softening in China which
is going to be you know, create some challenges and
New Zealand experts are going to have to work harder
how China and strategy means we want to do much
more in other parts of the world. I'll be meeting

(02:51):
with the Indian Trade Minister tomorrow morning. We're sitting down
for a very long bilateral and telling them that I'm
looking forward to getting up there in the next month
or so to really start putting some energy into open
the Indian market, because you know, our opportunities to sell
to China and other parts of the world is how
we're going to grow to the Zeld economy.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Very interesting point, how I mean, it's outside your wheelhouse,
but do you tell the Indian Trade Minister that having
Mody hang out with Putin's not cool? And why isn't
the world more exercised about this.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I'll be telling him about the great New Zealand land
he should be buying instead of Australian lamb, and how
we need to get some of these tariff rates down. Look,
it's important that New Zealand talks about the things that
are important to us, and we should do that both
publicly and directly. But in as far as the meeting
tomorrow is concerned, you know just ways that we can
continue to grow that relationship between India and New Zealand.

(03:41):
It was underdone under the Labor government. That's really really clear.
We're putting a lot of effort into it.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Good stuff, all right, go well, appreciated very much, Todd McClay,
who was in Italy this morning. No one covers that too.
I mean, you know, Modied Mody turns up to Putin's
house and they hang out together, and nobody seems to
be remotely bothered by that.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
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