Fiona Cooper: NZUS Council Executive Director on today's US Business Summit

New Zealand’s relationship with the "Land of Opportunity" is taking the spotlight in Auckland today. 

Business, trade, and political leaders are attending the annual US Business Summit. 

Christopher Luxon is set to open the summit, shedding light on the Government’s actions to strengthen bilateral ties. 

NZUS Council Executive Director Fiona Cooper told Mike Hosking New Zealand is doing great business with the US and the summit is about sharing stories about how to navigate the tariff turbulence.  

But at the same time, she says there are tonnes of opportunities in the US, in areas like technology, investment, education, agriculture, and aerospace, and this is about seizing them. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got the United States Business Summit meeting today. Policymakers, diplomats,
business heavyweights, all that sort of stuff. They talk trade
in tariffs and commercial opportunities. US a big deal, still
second largest export market, over thirty billion dollars worth of business.
Fiona Cooper, Executive director of the NZI United States Councilors
with US Fiona.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning, Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
When you gather together New Zealanders and Americans, are these
unusual times or business as usual or somewhere in between.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
These are new times. These are different times, and that's
why the theme of the event today is America's new playbook.
You know, we're all adjusting to America's new rules of
the game for international trade.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
The tariff's story, How is it a good story? A
negative story? Who was still trying to work it out?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well? A year ago we were all terribly worried about
what was in store, and certainly it has been a
real challenge for a lot of our sectors. But nonetheless,
for many products, prices are holding up in the United
States and their strong demand, so the impact hasn't been
as bad for every sector as we had feared.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Is there still some stuff to comes from on that though.
Is there still some information to come through on that
or we don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Oh, for sure there is. It will be interesting to see,
you know, how the trade stats are looking, you know,
in the new year, to see what the impact has been.
And of course we're all waiting to see what the
Supreme Court says about the legality of these reciprocal tariffs,
so that could change things again. Although nobody I think
is expecting tariffs to disappear completely. They'll find another way

(01:35):
if the current tariff structure is not permitted.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, what what's the view on America? I mean, a
lot of countries are looking for alternative markets if it
gets too complicated. Are we in that or not?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Well, you know, every company makes decisions about where to
place its product. But the fact is in the US
is a huge and very lucrative market. That's why it's
one about you know, top trading partners and we're doing
great businessiness there. And so I think today is about
sharing stories around how we navigate this tariff turbulence, but

(02:08):
at the same time sees those opportunities in technology, investment, education, aerospace, agribusiness,
you name it. There's still tons of opportunity in the USA.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
You make a very good point because so much focus
is on things like beef how much I mean you
talk about tech. Where are the growth areas outside of
US growing food for Americans?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, you know, we do a great business in exporting
machinery to the United States. So a lot of New
Zealand's high tech stuff is contributing to US supply chains
and that's going very well. So I think the tech sector,
the services sector is going absolute gangbusters in the United States.
Fantastic business there. It's our largest services market. So, as

(02:51):
I say, there's still tons of opportunity, but we have
to at the same time as navigating these new challenges.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, the uncertainty is interesting, isn't it. The unappreciate executive
director of the New Zealand United States Council, Fiona Cooper Witherson.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
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