Intense negotiations are continuing to conclude the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership by the 4 November meeting of the ASEAN Summit. Trade Ministers will be meeting two days ahead of this.

This report explores key themes arising from interviews and discussions that have taken place over the past 6 months with 25 heads of the creative industries, thought leaders, academics, students, business start-ups and general members of and contributors to New Zealand's creative community.

Despite the 2019 ExportNZ DHL Export Barometer results indicating a slight softening in export orders during the past 12 months; when looking ahead to the next 12 months, Kiwi exporters remain very optimistic with more than half of those surveyed predicting an increase in their export orders for 2020.

One of the outcomes from the UN General assembly meetings in New York was the finalization of an agreement between the US and Japan. In return for a US “commitment” not to increase tariffs on automobiles and some auto parts Japan will apply the commitments it has made under CPTPP for import liberalization to some US agriculture imports. Unfortunately for New Zealand this includes beef and cheese and other products of interests.

In this newsletter we let you know how to escalate an urgent employment visa request, we cover the latest intel on our international trade agreements, and we remind you to fill in our annual ExportNZ survey so we can share your views with Government. If you are interested in opportunities in Mexico and Peru

The global situation continues to deteriorate. The next tranche of Trump’s China tariffs kick in on 1 September. China has retaliated by imposing its own tariffs and by essentially banning US agricultural imports. Distortions in global markets that have resulted from this trade dispute are becoming increasingly apparent. An essentially political dispute between Japan and Korea is escalating and increasingly flowing over into then trade arena. The US has withdrawn GSP privileges for India. Chances of a hard Brexit are increasing every day. And then there is trade tension between the EU and US. This will be a central feature of the G7 summit next week in France. There are no positive signs from the US that it might reverse course on the appointment of new Appellate judges to the WTO dispute settlement body.

In this newsletter we cover the latest trade drama’s in our trade update and a range of other useful info. Also, I reconnected with Callaghan Innovation recently when we asked them present to the BusinessNZ Chief Technology Officer group. It was a good reminder of things they have on offer for businesses doing R&D, and there are some new pilot programmes, including one on Lean 2.0

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