The Country 30/04/25: Hunter McGregor talks to Jamie Mackay

Our Shanghai-based correspondent updates the state of the Chinese economy in the face of the US-China trade war.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our guy in Shanghai is Hunter MacGregor, Roxburgh born and bred,
but he's living in the Big Smoke now selling venison,
amongst other things to the Chinese. Now. We spoke to
Christopher luxon a wee bit earlier on the show Hunter
and he said where he brought to the table the
fact that Chinese raw milk production was dropping. That's got
to be good for New Zealand exporters.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Yeah, it has to be a
positive for the New Zealand dairy farmer, so, which is good.
You know, you've got to have a bit of positivity
out there, and there's plenty challenges floating around with tariffs
and and what's happening between the China and US. So,
you know, a nice positive sign for a dairy farmer.
So we'll take that absolutely.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
How do you read the Mexican standoff? Actually I mentioned
the wrong country there, Mexican, Canadian or Chinese standoff? Is
it going to be who blinks first between the US
and China on this tariff thing?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Oh very much so. I think the Chinese is not
going to blink first at all. You know. It's quite interesting.
Trump keeps saying that they're talking to the Chinese, and
you know, and and and things are starting to happen,
and then the Chinese come out, you know, through their
Foreign ministry and you know, saying that no, we're not
talking at all yet. So you know, it's not good.

(01:18):
And you know, Trump and the Americans thinking they've got
the upper hand. Will be interesting to see when they've
got a few empty shelves coming up in the next
week while to see what happens. I see Amazon have
started charging and other other firms have started charging the
tariff component of the cost of goods now keeping that

(01:39):
as as a separate line item and and voices and things.
So there's gonna be some real pressure going on the
American side. And there's plenty plenty of pressure here already
with factories slowing down and things like that. So you know,
there's challenges all around. There's going to be no winners.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Talk to me about Walmart, well, you know, more.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Much sources a lot of products of obviously out of China.
They have for a long time been saying to all
their supplies move out of China, and ones that have
can have already done that. And a lot of Chinese
companies are actually setting up factories in Southeast Asia. But
you know they've said to a number of suppliers. You know,
you're reading some news that they're said to a number

(02:19):
of supplies keep shipping to America and we'll sort the
tariffs out. So you know, that's a little positive sign.
But you know, the other thing, another thing that's happening
here is that some of the big Chinese companies are
stepping up to help factories here. JD dot Com, which
is like Amazon, it's a big, it's massive company. It's

(02:39):
about worth about two hundred and fifty billion New Zealand
dollars and it sells products. It buys products and sales
and delivers it through its own network. They've said they're
going to buy you probably forty five billion US dollars
of product over the next twelve months that was destined
for export to the US to help them sell other

(03:00):
in China. So some of these big companies are stepping
up and helping some of these factories.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Are you seeing any recovery in the Chinese property market.
It's a great barometer of the health of an economy.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I guess not a law. And that's a problem. You know,
that's a problem that still needs to be fixed. So
it's actually our last Friday went to Anzac Drinks, which
is with our Australian friends and a made of mine
is an investment with investment firm, and he was talking
about how that problem is still there. It's an underlying

(03:33):
problem for everybody, especially in the big cities, and when
that's sorted, then the economy will really start to turn around.
And it hasn't been sorted yet. It's still bouncing along
the bottom the the housing market, and you know, there's
still a little bit of work to do to sort
it out. Let's see what happens if there's going to
be some stimulus or some support to turn that around,

(03:57):
because that's a big it's still a bit major major.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Shanghai, where you're based, has the most magnificent skyline of
any city in the world, especially the bit on the
other side of the water. I'm not sure what area
you call it, but you've got the Shanghai Tower six
hundred and thirty two meters hunter. I know this because
I've got to re statue in my office. You've got
the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Oriental Pearl, a

(04:22):
beautiful building. Just to name three of them. But you've
been on a tall building on the other side of
the water.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, I haven't been on it yet. We've got may
Day holidays here, so for the first of the fifth
of mayor on holidays. So but you know, so that
you're talking about the Pudong side with all the tall
buildings on the Pouchie side, the just opened a tower, well,
an observation deck on the tallest building which is on
the Pouchie side, which is only which is three hundred

(04:51):
and twenty meters tall, and it looks and it's actually
a helicopter landing pad. So you go out and you
go outside. So I'm looking forward to going there. And
you know the trick about seeing the Shanghai skyline, you
want to go at daylight, see dusk, and then at
sea at night because at the light the lights at
nighttime are pretty spectacular. So that's the plan at some

(05:12):
point in the next in the next holiday to go
and check it out. And looking forward to.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Almost as good as the bright lights of Roxburgh minus
your Picture Theater.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yes almost, well there was there was bright lights from
the picture theater burned down unfortunately, so hopefully they can
rebuild that soon.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
You've still got the best golf course in the country.
Got to go, Hunter McGregor, thank you very much for
your time from Shanghai. Enjoyed the skyline

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yes, Thanks Jamie