Or, as Tim Groser memorably put it: they’d have to be prepared to «swallow dead rats.»
Media player: «Space» to play, «M» to mute, «left» and «right» to seek.
AUDIO: Federated Farmers dairy chair Andrew Hoggard(ABC Rural)
Decent access to the tightly protected United States and Canadian dairy markets was a top TPP priority for New Zealand, the world’s largest dairy exporter.
But Kiwi dairy farmers have been left disappointed, after the US and Canada largely left import restrictions and tariffs in place, despite the agreement.
The Federated Farmers of New Zealand dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard said that’s put a «medium sized rat» on the dinner menu for his industry.
«We definitely didn’t get all we wanted, and we’ve had to suck it up for the national good, really,» Mr Hoggard said.
New Zealand has been granted some extra access to the tightly protected US market. But Mr Hoggard said that amounted to «doubling a pittance,» and that other gains on removing whole milk powder tariffs wouldn’t be fully realised for 25 years.
Mr Hoggard said New Zealand «didn’t have a choice» but to agree to TPP, which he believes will be good for his nation overall. He isn’t blaming NZ negotiators for the dairy result, either.
Minister Groser revealed he’d been locked in talks with the US over dairy market access until 5am on Monday morning, Atlanta time, just four hours before ministers fronted the press to announce a deal.
«In rugby terms, they gave it a full 80 minutes at 120 per cent; they gave it everything. But at the end of the day we’re a tiny little country, we can’t threaten anybody, really, apart from on the rugby field,» Mr Hoggard said.
«We did what we could, but it wasn’t anywhere near what we would have liked to have gotten.»
US, Canadian dairy farmers have to ‘put on the big kiddie pants’: Hoggard
Mr Hoggard said that while New Zealand is the world’s largest dairy exporter, it only accounts for 2 per cent of global production.
He argues it doesn’t make sense for the United States to continue protecting its dairy farmers, when other industries like beef and pork are already subject to international competition.
«We are never going to completely put out of business the entire US or Canadian dairy industry, because we simply couldn’t produce enough milk to create enough cheese for all the Americans’ cheese burgers,» he said.
«There will still always be a US dairy industry, there will still always be a Canadian dairy industry.
«But what it [competition would] mean, is that they’ve got a bit of competitive pressure, they’ll have to up their game, it’ll force them to be innovative, it’ll force them to focus on the things that they’re good at, which is only fair,» Mr Hoggard said.
«Everybody else in the Canadian and US economy faces those pressures.
«What’s so special about the dairy farmers that they get a get-out-of-jail-free card compared to everyone else who works for a living?»
Mr Hoggard hopes domestic pressures in the US and Canada will ultimately force the markets open.
«I’m hopeful that consumers and taxpayers in all these other countries will look at their dairy farmers and go, ‘well hang on, how come the beef farmers and the arable farmers and the pork farmers can all handle the big wide world, and yet you guys are still clutching to the apron strings and refusing to put on the big kiddie pants?'» he said.
Source: ABC
