Todd McClay: Trade Minister believes New Zealand exporters will fare fine under the Trump Administration

The Trade Minister believes New Zealand exporters will do well during the Donald Trump presidency. 

The US has now overtaken Australia as the second largest destination for our exports. 

Our Government remains in the dark about whether New Zealand will get caught up in Donald Trump's tariff plan. 

But Todd McClay told Mike Hosking trade to the US rose under the last Trump term and should again this time around. 

McClay says while there is uncertainty about what Trump may or may not do around tariffs, he predicts Kiwi exporters will do very well during this Trump term. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Americans. As we mentioned with Andrew earlier on, turns
out the United States now our second biggest export market,
where once Australia was everything. Now it's third, so China,
the US now Australia Trade mins to Todd, mcclays, well,
this morning, my good morning. Did you hear a moment ago?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I heard, just caught the end of it. I'm sorry,
are you?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Are you concerned that we have a massive queue of
solutions waiting to come in and help New Zealand business
grow But they've been sitting there for over a year
of not two years, and we need to crack on Todd.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
It's absolutely and actually as Agriculture Minister, I hear it
from the sector all the time. We're far too slow
in that. It's very much what the Prime Minister, you know,
laid out a week ago in the State of Nation's speech.
We end up saying no and it's too hard rather
than finding a way to say yes. So I make
my words in the space that that lady was saying,
they need some help. We're working very furiously on this

(00:48):
and saying to our officials, yep, if you're going to
let it come into New enand has to be safe.
But if other countries are using it, you know, the
way to prove it shouldn't be as difficult as it is.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Exactly as much as I want to celebrate America and
I do, is anything gone wrong with Australia. Are we
growing Australia as much as we could or should?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
No. Look, I think there's softness in the Australian market
that their economy is with ours and so that filt
us through to sort of our trade. But it's still
very very important to us, I think one of the
most important trading and investment relationships we have. But what's
happened in America is they are consuming more and as
their economy is growing quickly, they're looking towards many countries

(01:26):
of the world and New Zealand incidentally, although this isn't
to do with President Trump. When he became president last time,
our trade with the US grew very very quickly, and
although there's a bit of uncertainty about what he might
or might not do around tariffs, my prediction is during
the term of his presidency, New Zealand exporters will do
very very well in the US market.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Good this growth was seeing in the US market are
we fully tapped or is there so much more potential there?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
There's a huge amount more if you look at sort
of where the growth is to put them, and they're
only about in goods about eight hundred million dollars a
year ahead of Australia. But you know, it's great for
our exporters. We've seen real growth and beef, there's been
some in dairy, a lot of wine, and then a
lot of it's tourism as well, you know, visitors coming
down here. No, I reckon, we're only just scratching the surface.

(02:14):
Our approach previously has been let's sell to America as
opposed to I don't know. The city of Los Angeles
has been a couple of times bigger than New Zealand.
So what we're seeing from a lot of our exporters
is then being much more strategic and a lot smarter.
Let's go into a market, and let's focus on this
state and build a really good presence and then step
to another one, rather than saying let's try and supply

(02:37):
everybody across America. And I think it's just a high
quality product, a really good reputation, and we have people
up there in that market that are really good now
at doing business.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
I know this is slightly out of your wheelhouse, but
there's a letter floating around this morning from the B
and Z to a coal mine. And this is what
Jane Jones have been on about this week, just systematically
closing down their business, saying there's no check account, there's
no debit card, no credit card, there's no nothing. Is
this part of the big growth strategy in this country
or do we need to do something about it?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
We need to fix that. Look independent, each business has
a right to make decisions for itself, but it feels
like there's been a very very big push from around
the world and in New Zealand we you know, grab
the bit between the teeth of saying again no to things. Look,
we do need to transition to more sustainable business practice
full stop, but we shouldn't be doing it by closing

(03:28):
things down that we currently need to grow the economy.
We can use our natural resources to help with AI
for more electricity that we'll need to build the batteries
of the world once and also you know, have good
environmental outcomes. It shouldn't be a trade off between one
and the other.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
I just don't get Todd how you as a government
can go we're pro mining and we want more mining,
while at the same time the Bank of New Zealand
is closing mining down and overtly and deliberately.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well that's right, and I think that's why you've seen
Shane raise it as a minister, and you know they'll
be a bit more talking about it. One of the
new responsibilities Chrystluction's given me as part of you know,
growing the economy this year is, you know, Minister of Investment,
Foreign direct Investment. And here's the interesting thing. When I
was up in the UAE, one of their big investment
funds says, you guys don't issue banking licenses anymore, and

(04:21):
I said, well we do. Why I said, well we
go and we we are looking at parts of the
world where we are opening local national banks, not branches.
And I said to them, well, why don't you come
down and talk to us. If it's a good fit,
we'll do whatever we can. So here's the message that
being said in others they have a right to make decisions,
but actually the government's job is to you know, allow

(04:41):
things to happen and set up the framework. And if
they don't want to do it. I think around the
world others will. But maybe after Shane has spoken being
said'll go and have another look at their policies.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Well see. Nice to have you on the program, Tom
mclach Trade Ministers.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
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