February 22, 2026 • 8 mins
The Minister of Trade tries to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the latest on the Trump tariffs and the Indian FTA.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our Trade minister and agriculture Minister for that matter, Todd McLay.
Todd I did listen to you on the husk of
this morning. Are we any clearer as to where we
are with Todd Clark's mate Trump's tariffs?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hey, Jamie, good afternoon. Unfortunately it just feels like here
we go again another day. No, we're not. So. You've
seen EU supportan Supreme Court come out and say the
president's legal base for the tariff rates is not justified.
Can't do that. He announced straight away and signed in
order for ten percent everywhere, and then over Sundery Saturday night,
I think we saw him say he's going to fifteen percent.
(00:37):
In essence, probably what's going to happen is no great
difference for New Zealanders. We're either at fifteen percent or
one of the other tools he's used lower. And of
course you saw our beef and Kiwi for it go
down to zero or MFN a little while ago. There's
no indication that's changing. But what has happened is, once
again for the whole world, but particularly news export is
(00:59):
uncertainly US tariff policy.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So do you know for certain, and I'm assuming you
don't whether that zero percent still applies to beef and
key with for it because they are two of our
biggest exports into the US.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So in as far as the order he signed saying
everything's ten percent, yes, it remains the same as my understanding,
the legal guys are going through all of the detail
on that right now. The reason the President put it
back down to zero for beef as an example, is
the pro produce enough beefs in the US they need it.
Probably prices were going up and so he dropped that
(01:33):
in response to that hasn't changed as a result of
the US Supreme Court. But I've got to say that
the biggest challenge I think our exports are facing is
this uncertainty of the changing nature. I've just had a
bit of an update over the weekend of what our
trade is tracking like, and generally across the board or
it's from a value point of view, we're exporting more
(01:54):
by value to the US than we were before the
fifteen percent, and that just shows US consumers still need
those products. I guess they're paying more for them.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It must be very awkward for exporters though, just even doing.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
The math on this, and that is a challenge you know,
New Zealand doesn't like tariff rates. We think they're harmful,
their inflationary. The average tariff on US goods into New
Zealander's point zero point three percent, so the fifteen percent
or ten percent is just not warranted on us. But
it's changing nature. That's very hard. So you know, if
you're if you're a beef export right into the US,
(02:27):
it's an important market. What's going to happen over the
next twelve months, how do you put that in your
contract with the people you're supplying And that's what makes
it hard. So we're getting as much information as quickly
and we've been working really closely with exporters. They're faring well.
We're also, as you know, opening up opportunities olswhere. So
since the tariff come on, almost two billion dollars extra
exported to the European Union from New Zealand under that
(02:49):
trade deal. That's predominantly our farmers doing that, and of
course the India trade deal it's white's even more important.
It's not to replace the US, but you know exporters
will decide for of so ows risk the cost of
that and where they might get a better return and
the India and New Zealand governments have said we're going
to sign this deal and we will honor the commitments
that we're taking on it. To give certainty.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, let's go from Trump's tariffs to the Indian FDA.
I also heard you comment that you've had productive talks
with Damian O'Connor, who is Labour's trade spokespists and seems
to be on this case on this one anyhow, leading
the charge for labor, you're obviously pretty confident you're going
to get this past the well past the post.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It's a high quality trade agreement. There's no different than
all the other ones that National Labor have signed, you
have supported together. In fact, Chris Hopkins came along to
the meeting in my office last week with Gaming and
a couple of their staff members, and I had my
officials there and we got into quite some detail. They
have some issues they wanted to work through. We are
working through those and addressing them. It's a high quality deal.
(03:54):
It's the best interest of New Zealand and these five
million New Zealanders can sell to one point four billion
customers in India, and so we're making the case the
label will have to decide for themselves where they want
to sit on us. But there's nothing that I see
at the moment that tells me that they wouldn't support
it other than it being political an electured year. But
the reason for every farmer listening it's important the national
(04:17):
labor on the same page and these type of things
is we're backing them and fighting others for better access.
We should not be fighting each other, you know, when
it comes to trade, and I've put my best foot
for it'll be up to Crucipkins to make the decision.
But it was very, very constructive and we made some
important steps forward.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
What are you going to do about all Shane Jones's
Uber drivers that are coming well.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
The thing about Shane is, you know, I think he
was okay at school, but he wasn't great at maths,
and we see that with some of his tweets. Right.
He's a good mate of mind. We get our well
and we spend a lot of time talking together. But
in this case beating a drum that just doesn't make
sense at all. There is not a single thing in
that free trade agreement that means somebody that has the
skills been either driver can come to New Zealand. It
(04:59):
doesn't street and fact that says that they can't. So
it's a lecture near Jamie. You're going to hear some screaming,
some whaling, and you're going to read some stuff on
social media that doesn't make sense. But I've got a
really really clear message to everyone in our Parliament. This
is one of the best deals and anybody's ever done
with India. And if it wasn't a good deal, I
would not have done it.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I think we're being too tough on the Indian uber
drivers Todd McLay because a lot of them are working
double ships their computer scientists and then they uber drive
in their spare time. I mean, that's the sort of
people we want to encourage into this country.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Look, ultimately, where a country that has been built on immigration,
there are very few people whose ancestors were here at
the beginning. My family came from Ireland. My grandfather of
eighted two, you know, left the farm and came out
here to New Zealand with a family, and he went
on to be a great, great farmer, as many others
have been. But the trade agreement doesn't give any rights
(05:53):
to anybody from India to come here to migrate to live.
It focuses on high school areas. So what it will
allow is up to one thousand and seventy people that
maybe were need in construction, who are skilled and have
experienced to come here because you need to build things.
We don't have them all and we can't train them
fast enough. But the point that I think Shane is
trying to make is low skilled people coming. As I've
(06:14):
told of this deal. Shane, you're wrong, mate.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
One more comment from you and hopefully I'll have Mark
Leslie from PARMU, the chief executive, on the show tomorrow.
They've just come out with a record forecast four year profit.
I mean only this is only a half year result
for Parmu. Now should we be selling Parmu? Has PAMU
come right or or is PAMU getting a record result
(06:39):
just because we've got record prices?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Oops, hello Todd? Where has he gone to? I might
have to bring the other Todd and I don't know
what's happened to that Todd. He's gone? He's back, is he? Hello? Todd?
Todd mcclay's gone, Todd Clark, welcome to the country. Glad
to be here, Jamie. Well, it's great to have your
dulcet tones in the studio. You heard what our Minister
(07:07):
of Trade had to say. Your man, Trump's causing us
no end of grief.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Well, I was listening intently as an American trying to
learn what's going on back home and.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Right, just hold fire it. Have we got you back? Hello, Hello,
We've got you back. I don't know what happened man, anyhow,
I was just asking the other Todd, as Trump is,
He's causing us all sorts of grief. But just a
final comment from you, Todd mcleoir know you're busy. You've
just jumped out of a cabinet meeting about Parmu. Should
we be selling it? Is Parmu getting a record result
(07:37):
because we're getting record returns, or is now Parmu hitting
in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Well, I think we are getting record returns. All farmers
doing well. It's encouraging that they are too, because it
hasn't been the case previously. I'm not going to get
into the whether she'd owned to sell it. My focus
is just making sure they're good neighbors, they farm well,
and they return a profit. Because every day they return
a profit, we can employ more doctors, more nurses and
have more money to and our rural health all around
(08:02):
New Zealand. So my simple message of them New Zealand
farmers have done it hard and are contributing. You should
roll your sleeve up on behalf of the taxpayer and
then make the case of why the government should own you.
Make as much money as you can so that we
don't have to borrow as much.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Todd McLay, thank you very much for your time, Thanks
for calling back. There we go, that is the Minister
of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McLay
Our Trade minister and agriculture Minister for that matter, Todd McLay.
Todd I did listen to you on the husk of
this morning. Are we any clearer as to where we
are with Todd Clark's mate Trump's tariffs?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hey, Jamie, good afternoon. Unfortunately it just feels like here
we go again another day. No, we're not. So. You've
seen EU supportan Supreme Court come out and say the
president's legal base for the tariff rates is not justified.
Can't do that. He announced straight away and signed in
order for ten percent everywhere, and then over Sundery Saturday night,
I think we saw him say he's going to fifteen percent.
(00:37):
In essence, probably what's going to happen is no great
difference for New Zealanders. We're either at fifteen percent or
one of the other tools he's used lower. And of
course you saw our beef and Kiwi for it go
down to zero or MFN a little while ago. There's
no indication that's changing. But what has happened is, once
again for the whole world, but particularly news export is
(00:59):
uncertainly US tariff policy.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So do you know for certain, and I'm assuming you
don't whether that zero percent still applies to beef and
key with for it because they are two of our
biggest exports into the US.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So in as far as the order he signed saying
everything's ten percent, yes, it remains the same as my understanding,
the legal guys are going through all of the detail
on that right now. The reason the President put it
back down to zero for beef as an example, is
the pro produce enough beefs in the US they need it.
Probably prices were going up and so he dropped that
(01:33):
in response to that hasn't changed as a result of
the US Supreme Court. But I've got to say that
the biggest challenge I think our exports are facing is
this uncertainty of the changing nature. I've just had a
bit of an update over the weekend of what our
trade is tracking like, and generally across the board or
it's from a value point of view, we're exporting more
(01:54):
by value to the US than we were before the
fifteen percent, and that just shows US consumers still need
those products. I guess they're paying more for them.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It must be very awkward for exporters though, just even doing.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
The math on this, and that is a challenge you know,
New Zealand doesn't like tariff rates. We think they're harmful,
their inflationary. The average tariff on US goods into New
Zealander's point zero point three percent, so the fifteen percent
or ten percent is just not warranted on us. But
it's changing nature. That's very hard. So you know, if
you're if you're a beef export right into the US,
(02:27):
it's an important market. What's going to happen over the
next twelve months, how do you put that in your
contract with the people you're supplying And that's what makes
it hard. So we're getting as much information as quickly
and we've been working really closely with exporters. They're faring well.
We're also, as you know, opening up opportunities olswhere. So
since the tariff come on, almost two billion dollars extra
exported to the European Union from New Zealand under that
(02:49):
trade deal. That's predominantly our farmers doing that, and of
course the India trade deal it's white's even more important.
It's not to replace the US, but you know exporters
will decide for of so ows risk the cost of
that and where they might get a better return and
the India and New Zealand governments have said we're going
to sign this deal and we will honor the commitments
that we're taking on it. To give certainty.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, let's go from Trump's tariffs to the Indian FDA.
I also heard you comment that you've had productive talks
with Damian O'Connor, who is Labour's trade spokespists and seems
to be on this case on this one anyhow, leading
the charge for labor, you're obviously pretty confident you're going
to get this past the well past the post.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It's a high quality trade agreement. There's no different than
all the other ones that National Labor have signed, you
have supported together. In fact, Chris Hopkins came along to
the meeting in my office last week with Gaming and
a couple of their staff members, and I had my
officials there and we got into quite some detail. They
have some issues they wanted to work through. We are
working through those and addressing them. It's a high quality deal.
(03:54):
It's the best interest of New Zealand and these five
million New Zealanders can sell to one point four billion
customers in India, and so we're making the case the
label will have to decide for themselves where they want
to sit on us. But there's nothing that I see
at the moment that tells me that they wouldn't support
it other than it being political an electured year. But
the reason for every farmer listening it's important the national
(04:17):
labor on the same page and these type of things
is we're backing them and fighting others for better access.
We should not be fighting each other, you know, when
it comes to trade, and I've put my best foot
for it'll be up to Crucipkins to make the decision.
But it was very, very constructive and we made some
important steps forward.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
What are you going to do about all Shane Jones's
Uber drivers that are coming well.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
The thing about Shane is, you know, I think he
was okay at school, but he wasn't great at maths,
and we see that with some of his tweets. Right.
He's a good mate of mind. We get our well
and we spend a lot of time talking together. But
in this case beating a drum that just doesn't make
sense at all. There is not a single thing in
that free trade agreement that means somebody that has the
skills been either driver can come to New Zealand. It
(04:59):
doesn't street and fact that says that they can't. So
it's a lecture near Jamie. You're going to hear some screaming,
some whaling, and you're going to read some stuff on
social media that doesn't make sense. But I've got a
really really clear message to everyone in our Parliament. This
is one of the best deals and anybody's ever done
with India. And if it wasn't a good deal, I
would not have done it.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I think we're being too tough on the Indian uber
drivers Todd McLay because a lot of them are working
double ships their computer scientists and then they uber drive
in their spare time. I mean, that's the sort of
people we want to encourage into this country.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Look, ultimately, where a country that has been built on immigration,
there are very few people whose ancestors were here at
the beginning. My family came from Ireland. My grandfather of
eighted two, you know, left the farm and came out
here to New Zealand with a family, and he went
on to be a great, great farmer, as many others
have been. But the trade agreement doesn't give any rights
(05:53):
to anybody from India to come here to migrate to live.
It focuses on high school areas. So what it will
allow is up to one thousand and seventy people that
maybe were need in construction, who are skilled and have
experienced to come here because you need to build things.
We don't have them all and we can't train them
fast enough. But the point that I think Shane is
trying to make is low skilled people coming. As I've
(06:14):
told of this deal. Shane, you're wrong, mate.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
One more comment from you and hopefully I'll have Mark
Leslie from PARMU, the chief executive, on the show tomorrow.
They've just come out with a record forecast four year profit.
I mean only this is only a half year result
for Parmu. Now should we be selling Parmu? Has PAMU
come right or or is PAMU getting a record result
(06:39):
just because we've got record prices?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Oops, hello Todd? Where has he gone to? I might
have to bring the other Todd and I don't know
what's happened to that Todd. He's gone? He's back, is he? Hello? Todd?
Todd mcclay's gone, Todd Clark, welcome to the country. Glad
to be here, Jamie. Well, it's great to have your
dulcet tones in the studio. You heard what our Minister
(07:07):
of Trade had to say. Your man, Trump's causing us
no end of grief.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Well, I was listening intently as an American trying to
learn what's going on back home and.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Right, just hold fire it. Have we got you back? Hello, Hello,
We've got you back. I don't know what happened man, anyhow,
I was just asking the other Todd, as Trump is,
He's causing us all sorts of grief. But just a
final comment from you, Todd mcleoir know you're busy. You've
just jumped out of a cabinet meeting about Parmu. Should
we be selling it? Is Parmu getting a record result
(07:37):
because we're getting record returns, or is now Parmu hitting
in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Well, I think we are getting record returns. All farmers
doing well. It's encouraging that they are too, because it
hasn't been the case previously. I'm not going to get
into the whether she'd owned to sell it. My focus
is just making sure they're good neighbors, they farm well,
and they return a profit. Because every day they return
a profit, we can employ more doctors, more nurses and
have more money to and our rural health all around
(08:02):
New Zealand. So my simple message of them New Zealand
farmers have done it hard and are contributing. You should
roll your sleeve up on behalf of the taxpayer and
then make the case of why the government should own you.
Make as much money as you can so that we
don't have to borrow as much.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Todd McLay, thank you very much for your time, Thanks
for calling back. There we go, that is the Minister
of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McLay
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