A great FTA with the UK

Radio NZ reports:

New Zealand has agreed in principle to the United Kingdom’s second free trade deal since Brexit, eventually eliminating tariffs on all New Zealand exports to the country.

The deal, worth an estimated $1 billion over 15 years to the New Zealand economy, would eliminate tariffs on all New Zealand exports, including honey, wine, kiwifruit, onions, most industrial products and – crucially – a range of dairy and beef products.

It also includes provisions ensuring animal welfare, and commitments to address environmentally harmful subsidies like those for fossil fuels or overfished stocks.

More than 97 percent of tariffs will be removed as soon as it takes effect, but would take up to five years for dairy and 15 for sheep meat and beef tariffs to be completely removed.

This is a great agreement. I don’t really care that there is a long phase in time, so long as the eventual destination gets us the tariffs gone.

Charles Finny notes:

If you had told me 10 years ago that New Zealand would on 21 October 2021 announce agreement in principle on a comprehensive high quality free trade agreement with the UK, and that agreement, over time, would lead to full free trade in beef, lamb and dairy products, I would have asked what you had been smoking or drinking.  

This would never have happened had the UK remained in the EU.

The intellectual property agreement is interesting. New Zealand has agreed to extend the copyright term for authors, performers and producers by 20 years. This will make it easier for New Zealand to meet US demands, should the US seek to rejoin the big Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).  

This is the only part I find disappointing, but a small price to pay for the overall deal. It takes copyright terms from life +50 years to life + 70 years. I think it should be at most life + 20 years so if a creator dies, their children will benefit from their works until they become adults. But I don’t see any benefits in works remaining in copyright for sometimes 140 years. No one is motivated to create more work in the hope it will earn revenue 70 years after they are dead.

The Prime Minister and Damien O’Connor and the negotiating team need full credit for what has been achieved so far, and it is great that Boris Johnson and his Government are prepared to deliver on their free trade rhetoric.

Yep full credit to our Government and to Boris, who has walked the walk.