Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Kiwi meat and wine exporters bracing for tariffs ahead of potential Trump presidency

Meat and wine exporters are scrambling to get a handle on the possibility of higher tariffs in a key market if Donald Trump wis the presidency.

The Republican presidential candidate has threatened tariffs of at least 20 percent on all imports to pay for tax cuts and increase jobs in the US.

The Country's Jamie Mackay says producers won't want to shoulder the extra costs that could come with these changes.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With me right now? Is Jamie mckaye, Host of the Country. Hey, Jamie,
could I Heather?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
I reckon? He's got the orange wall paint on to
cover the bags under his eye. You can say what
you want about Trump, but at seventy eight years of age,
you have to admire his energy.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, he's probably napping on the plane, don't you think
on the way over like he's he'll be doing like
newborn cat naps, won't he.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, but I mean you know he hasn't had a
day off. He has. He had a game of golf
for about six weeks apparently. So no, No, he's a
bit like Winston ageless from that point of view. I
admire his energy, if not all his policies, and some
of his policies Heather may come home to roost for
us here in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Well, particularly when you think I was talking to somebody
in the wine business today and tariffs if they are
like that's really going to hit them quite hard in
the States, which is a big market for US.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, it's our biggest market. I didn't realize that our
biggest export market. Excuse me, I'm a bit like Donald
my South losing my boys eight hundred million dollars worth
of export read you last year to the US. Now,
our wines occupy kind of a mid range price point
in the US market, and some of the commentary around

(01:09):
this is that retailers would be very reluctant to increase
the price on a bottle fifteen to twenty dollars US,
and that therefore the tariff could fall back on the
wine producers. So not so good for the wine producers.
Maybe not so good for the lamb producers either when
it comes to the red meat, because there are price

(01:30):
points at which lamb will just burn off the demand.
The interesting one either is beef. They literally cannot get
enough of our beef. And it's all for manufacturing. It's
all for hamburgers. McDonald's needs. McDonald's need everything we can produce,
and a bit more so. Once again, some of the

(01:50):
commentaries saying, whereas who will bear the cost of these tariffs,
and the first instance, that would be paid for by
US importers, But the extent to which those costs could
be passed on to wholesale, resale or retail customers depends
on the bargaining power, and beef apparently has a lot
more bargaining power, so the tariff is unlikely to fall

(02:12):
on the New Zealand exporters may not be the same
with our lamb and our wine.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
That's a very interesting, a little insight that you've got there, Jamie.
I appreciated. That's Jamie mckaye, host of the Country. For
more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks.
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.