Trade Minister Tim Groser has again tried to calm fears in New Zealand that drug-buying agency Pharmac will not be completely lost in free trade talks with the United States, but will not say what aspects of the agency the government is looking to protect.
In an interview on TVNZ's Q&A programme on Sunday, Groser said New Zealand's "public health system is not up for negotiation" in Trans Pacific Partnership talks being held currently.
"Pharmac is an outstanding institution that has helped NZ get on top of its pharmaceutical drug bill in a spectacularly successful way, and we’re not about to negotiate its fundamentals," Groser said from Berlin.
"But to every single journalist, and there are dozens who have asked me, ‘What do you mean, Mr Groser, by fundamentals?’ I say, ‘Well, I’m not going to negotiate that over the media - whether it’s in a studio in Wellington or on top of a roof top looking over the Reichstag in Berlin," he said.
It was still unlikely a Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement with the US would be signed at APEC in November, Groser said.
"I can’t speak for the world on this matter, because there are nine different countries involved and 700 or 800 officials," he said.
"What I still think is doable is signing some type of interim agreement - call it a framework agreement - well, not signing it, but politically endorsing it at the highest level of government at the APEC meeting. And the content of that is really the subject of negotiation over the next few months. So, you know, we’ll just do as much as the traffic will bear."
High food inflation means India wants FTA
Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Key, who is back from a week-long trip pushing along free trade talks with India, said an agreement between New Zealand and India had enormous potential.
“To put it in context, two-way trade with China at the moment is NZ$12-13 billion, [China and India have] similar sized populations, [two-way trade with] India’s NZ$1 billion," Key said on RadioLive this morning.
“I think you can work out very quickly there’s a big opportunity there," he said.
An obstacle was agriculture is usually part of their concern. About 60% of all people working in India work in the agricultural space – so often very small farms, one or two cows – but nevertheless you can imagine the resistance [to removing tariffs on overseas products].
“The good news part of the story is India wants to do the deal, and that’s because they’re very worried about inflation that’s running at about 8%. It’s having a big impact on the livelihoods of everyday Indians, and food is about 43% of their CPI basket," Keys said.
“So if they can bring in food, and keep a cap on food inflation, that’ll help them, he said.
There would be "massive" growth in demand from India for food.
India after NZ technology
Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma said in the near-term a benefit to India from a trade deal would be for his country to gain better access to New Zealand agriculture technology.
"We are the second-largest fruit and vegetable producer in the world, and we are the largest milk producer in the world. So it’s not a question of food security," Sharma said when asked whether food security was something India was looking to secure from a free trade deal with New Zealand.
"The issue here is that NZ has mastered the technologies in the field of agriculture, including agro processing and food processing and also for post-harvest management, and that is an area which is of special interest to us, because India’s post-harvest losses are high," Sharma said.
"This is one sector which alone will be seeing investments of over 200 billion within the next three years in India.
"Besides that, NZ has formidable strength in its technology in milk processing in the dairy sector. I had visited NZ recently, and I went into Fonterra, and we saw the technologies which NZ has, and there is already an understanding reached between Fonterra and the NDDB - that’s the National Dairy Development Board of India," Sharma said.
"This is one area where we can see a movement in the very near future, besides of course what we trade with each other. That would also see a substantial increase after the trade agreement is concluded," he said.
See the Q&A interview with the Indian Trade Minister here.
(Updates comments from PM Key, with comments on timing)
6 Comments
Love it how the PM reverts to saying, 'don't worry the Indians will want our food, our primary produce'.
But the Indian Trade Minister says, 'we want your technology'.
Which one creates higher paid jobs...? Key keeps saying he's keen on these jobs - he even wants to turn NZ into a services hub. So why is he going around saying this will be great for our primary exports first and foremost?
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