New Zealand exporters are rubbing their hands at the prospect of a free trade agreement with Russia, as the two Governments agree to start talks.
Prime Minister John Key met with Russian officials at the APEC Summit in Japan, and announced talks for Russia’s first free-trade deal would get underway early next year.
The bulk of New Zealand’s exports to Russia come from the farming sector, mostly the meat and dairy industries.
Federated Farmers President Don Nicolson says the Russian talks have huge potential for all primary producers.
“The worlds does have this growing affluence is most places and we need to be part of that supply chain for the dairy industry if not other industries as well in those places.”
Mr Nicolson says the Russian agreement is great news, but progress of the Doha round of trade talks would be even better.
“The big prize of all would be the multi-lateral Doha completion and really this could be the impetus to kick start Doha to get to a conclusion, because heck, we’ve been talking about that since the early 21st century and you wonder why sensible politicians in this worlds can’t get this over the line.”
Chairman of the Dairy Companies Association Malcolm Bailey says talks with Russia, the world’s biggest importer of butter and cheese, is great news for the dairy industry.
“It is a growing market. It’s not only market growth but we have to pay tariffs for access into the market, so we would endeavour over time to get those tariffs eliminated and that would save a fair bit of money and that’s revenue back to New Zealand.”
Mr Bailey says other potential deals also bode well for the dairy industry, but Russia is a main focus.
“The Russian deal looks far more promising. The TPP’s a little bit slower and of course the [Doha] round was going to be all completed by 2004…so we’re only six years off the pace there, so I don’t think anyone’s holding their breath exactly on Doha.”
Beef + Lamb New Zealand is also welcoming the news.
Chairman Mike Petersen says not only is Russia a huge potential market, it’s still growing.
“We’ve got markets in every part of the world looking for sheepmeat and beef and there’s just simply not enough to go around. So having markets like Russia opening up as well as countries in Asia is a big opportunity.”
