Dairy makes up about 20 per cent of New Zealand’s exports but faces large tariffs in many countries.
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In recent months, other countries have singled out Canada for having taken a hard line on allowing foreign competition into its tightly controlled dairy sector.
According to industry figures now in Maui, Hawaii, for talks on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the US is not sticking to a position agreed to 18 months ago which was to be the starting point for this round of negotiations.
On dairy, he said: “It’s not realistic to think that we’re going to get everything we want”.
The 12-country negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which incorporates Canada, the U.S., and Japan, are aimed toward creating nothing lower than the most important worldwide commerce deal in historical past. One was Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., who earlier said that he was also concerned about currency manipulation that could artificially boost a country’s exports; the possibility of long protection times for certain drugs and limits in access that could result; and whether goods from non-TPP countries, such as China, could be incorporated into products made by member countries and turn those non-TPP countries into free riders.
She predicts New Zealand’s dairy sector will not get meaningful access due to the political sensitivity in opening up these markets.
The governing Conservatives, nevertheless, are hoping to finish the settlement earlier than an election marketing campaign that’s extensively anticipated to start out Sunday. A signed deal could serve as proof of the party’s economic credentials.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted in a Bloomberg interview this week that his authorities will defend the pursuits of each Canadian business “as greatest we will”. In a deal with the European Union in 2013, Canadian negotiators held back concessions until the last few days of talks, then cushioned the blow with promises to compensate farmers. “Our goal is to secure the best deal for Canadians, something which we can sell to the Canadian people”, Max Moncaster, press secretary for Mr. Fast, said. “I view this type of pressure tactic as just more negotiating through the media, and we’ve been consistent in not engaging in that”. New Zealand’s representative in Hawaii described a Canadian agriculture offer as so insignificant as to be unworthy of discussion.
“Given that we are a trading nation, and given the global economy is the way of the future, we can not be left out of this kind of trade arrangement”, Harper said in an interview on Wednesday.
But Petersen says the fact Canadian negotiators are actually discussing the politically sensitive issue at these meetings is significant, because they have refused to talk about dairy in the past.
The Harper government rejected the notion that Canada is laggard at the talks because of its negotiating behaviour on dairy-market access.
Groups have warned about the lack of public debate around the talks, saying they are being conducted with guidance from multinational corporations and without input from labour leaders, environmentalists or even elected officials.
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News reports this week suggest Canada is finally ready to bend on protectionist measures for dairy and poultry. She called it the “the most-dynamic region in the world”. U.S.-Canada ties have already been strained over the Obama administration’s failure to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from northern Alberta to refineries on the Texas gulf coast. “And not being part of this agreement will be a disaster”.
