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Message from the executive director

In this edition, check out our latest trade update and if you are interested in doing business in India – there are some good opportunities coming your way.  It is great to see pet food exporter Ziwi doing so well and I took that photo of their product at a pet store in Kashiwa, Japan recently.  They were very prominently displayed.  Great to see.  If you are interested in Taiwan, get along to the conference in Wellington – details below.

Catherine Beard

027 463 3212 or cbeard@exportnz.org.nz

Trade update - November

China – NZ FTA Upgrade

The Government is to be congratulated on completing the negotiations on an upgrade of the 2008 FTA.  This is particularly good news for forest products exporters.  There are useful gains on trade facilitation and some aspects of our services agreement.

RCEP

Agreement on the text of the RCEP Agreement was reached in Bangkok in early November but two things were missing – India and market access commitments.  These are usually the most continuous part of any FTA but negotiators seem confident that these commitments will be finalized by February.

The decision of everyone to proceed with RCEP, but without India, greatly diminishes the value of the agreement for New Zealand as New Zealand already has FTAs with the other RCEP members.  There may be some marginal improvements in services commitments from existing FTA partners but we are not expecting substantial forward movement.  The positive is that we have 15 economies agreeing the same set of trade rules and rules of origin. The fact that Japan, Korea and China now have a FTA linkage is good for the politics of North Asia.  North Asia is an area of critical important to New Zealand.

More ->>

Delegation to Indus Food 2020

We are pleased to announce that INZBC is undertaking registration for hosted buyers programme for the 3rd edition of Indusfood which is scheduled during 8-9, January 2020 at India Exposition Mart, Greater Noida, India.

Over the last couple of years, Indusfood has emerged as globally trusted platform to source Indian foodstuff. As the awareness about the Indusfood is growing, we have started receiving interest to visit Indusfood 2020 from buyers in New Zealand. However, we would like to offer our existing buyers the first ‘right to participate’ in Indusfood 2020 given the limited slots available.

More ->>

Dilmah Tea founder Merrill J Fernando to be awarded honorary doctorate by Massey University

Dilmah Tea Founder Merrill J Fernando is to be awarded an honorary doctorate by Massey University next Friday.

Fernando, known to New Zealanders with his now famous television ad for Dilmah tea: "Do Try It", will be capped as a Doctor of Science.

He was nominated for the honour by the Pro Vice Chancellor of the College of Sciences, Professor Ray Geor, together with Distinguished Professor Paul Moughan, director of the university's Riddet Institute.

The doctorate acknowledges Fernando's commitment to ethical business, the New Zealand food industry and tea.

More ->>

Changes on the way for vocational training

With big changes ahead for vocational training, businesses are well placed to explore opportunities for how training and apprenticeships can work better for their company and their employees.
The Government has announced a suite of changes to vocational education, including:

  • creating a single national polytechnic that will absorb the existing 16;
  • disestablishing the 11 existing industry training organisations and establishing four to seven Workforce Development Councils, responsible for skill leadership and standard setting;
  • shifting responsibilities for on-job training to the new polytechnic; and
  • unifying the funding system

Given that skills and people continue to be a pain point for many industries, it is now a national imperative to make sure our skill system can be more responsive to those industries that are being held back by labour and skill shortages.

More ->>

Record 11.11 sales for NZ petfood brand

Mt Maunganui based specialty pet food manufacturer, Ziwi Ltd, is celebrating record sales during the biggest shopping day on the planet - Double 11 or Singles’ Day.

Ziwi Peak was the number three cat treat brand sold on Tmall – the flagship online platform operated by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. During this year’s Double 11 and the surrounding days in November, Ziwi brand sales grew 700 percent compared to the same period last year.

Double 11 or 11:11, falls on November 11 every year and was first created by Alibaba in 2009.  The event was originally dedicated to single people and is recognised as the biggest shopping day in the world, outstripping the sales of US shopping holidays Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  This year saw Alibaba’s platforms sell goods worth 268 billion yuan, or US$38 billion, easily exceeding last year’s record US$30.5 billion sales*.

More ->>

2019 Joint New Zealand-Taiwan Business Conference

The 2019 Joint New-Zealand Taiwan Business Conference is the inaugural conference celebrating and promoting business opportunities between New Zealand and Taiwan.

Built on the ANZTEC Free Trade Agreement, New Zealand and Taiwan share a vibrant trading and economic relationship. Taiwan is currently New Zealand’s 14th largest trading partner with two-way trade amounting to NZ$2.43 billion in the last year.

Our two markets complement each other, with Taiwan being highly-industrialised and New Zealand reliant on our food & beverage exports, our trading relationship is a perfect fit. But our business relationship with Taiwan is packed with other opportunities as well, and on November 28th these are the opportunities we will focus on.

Focus Topics

  • The Circular Economy
  • Business Opportunities in the Wellington Region
  • Innovation & Technology
  • Food & Biotech Innovation
  • Energy Sector Cooperation
  • Chapter 19 Business Relationships

Register here

Business calls for reform of the OECD Arrangement on Export Credits


Paris, 19th November, 2019 – Today Business at OECD published a joint business position “Joint Business position on the modernization of the OECD arrangement” calling for the modernization of the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits (the Arrangement).

"Over the last decades we have seen important geographical shifts in the balance and scope of international trade and an increasing importance of global value chains. Today, unfair competition in the financing of exports is a reality many businesses operating in OECD countries face," said Russel Mills, Business at OECD Secretary General. "It is thus crucial that OECD work contributes to levelling the playing field with respect to the provision of officially supported export credits offered by Export Credit Agencies."

More ->>

Delegation to the State of Bihar, India

INZBC will be leading a delegation of select Kiwi businesses to the state of Bihar, for growing business opportunities there. This is as part of the MOU signed with The BiharFoundation.

Priority industries are: Agri- tech especially focussed towards food technology and food processing, Dairy and Milk products, Wastewater management, Horticulture, Small industries and hand made products, Fruit & Beverage industries, Universities, Manufacturing, Innovation-driven companies, etc.

More ->>

Government procurement feedback survey

Getting government procurement right is important. You spend a lot of time and money bidding for and managing government contracts.

New Zealand Government Procurement (NZGP) want to know what’s working and what needs improving in procurement planning and sourcing. Your feedback will help shape and grow procurement capability in the Public Sector.

Your individual responses will be held confidentially by the Capability Services Team and the Business Information and Analysis Team within New Zealand Government Procurement.These are not procurement teams: they work to help improve procurement practice across government.

Take the survey here

ePing alerts – Get the inside edge on what’s happening in the export world

What is ePing you ask?
ePing is a valuable, free online web service for exporters.
You sign up quickly and easily to receive alerts on upcoming changes in export markets, including product requirements, labelling and standards that are not international.
You can choose how often you get alerted, the products you want to know about and the markets you are interested in.

And why is this so great?
ePing gives you a  ‘heads-up’ about proposed changes to export requirements that affect your business. If you are in the know early enough it will give you enough time to prepare and adjust your business to any upcoming changes.


Being in the know about any changes that affect your business also gives you the opportunity to have a say before proposed changes become law. The country that wants to make changes is obliged to take your comments into account.


Sign-up for ePing alerts here.

For more information, ;">email the New Zealand Technical Barriers to Trade Enquiry Point.

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