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Wine industry hails trans-Pacific trade deal
Winemakers have welcomed a new trade agreement that will see restrictions lifted between 12 Pacific rim countries, including the US, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was conditionally agreed this week after five years of negotiations between the 12 countries, should make access to markets easier and trading conditions fairer. The agreement will eventually create a free trade zone between participating countries including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam, which together account for 40% of global GDP and 24% of the world’s trade in services.
The deal will remove 98% of all tariffs levied by participating countries on products including beef, dairy, sugar, rice, horticulture, seafood and wine. In the US, 18,000 tariffs currently placed on US-manufactured goods by participating countries, including Japan, will be removed. Earlier this year the Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) said the finalisation of the TPP would be “key to opening foreign markets to American spirits products.” Japan already has deals to phase out tariffs on imports of Australian and Chilean wine.
Tariffs will also be removed on Australian wine exports to Canada, Malaysia and Vietnam, and to Mexico and Peru over the next 10 years, with Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull describing the deal as a “gigantic foundation stone for our future prosperity”.
New Zealand Winegrowers has welcomed the final stages of the TPP, with its CEO Philip Gregan calling it an “excellent outcome for the New Zealand wine industry”.
“Finalising the TPP is strategically very important for our export future as the TPP countries already account for over 60% of New Zealand wine exports”, said Gregan. “While we have not seen the detail of the agreement we understand it will provide improved access into key TPP markets, and a secure rules based system that will help us to improve market access.”
New Zealand wine exports are currently valued at $1.46 billion (NZ’s 6th largest export), and the industry is aiming to achieve exports of $2 billion per annum by 2020.
The agreement still needs to be ratified by each countries legislature before it is made law, with the text detailing the agreement set to be released in the next month.
For me, the TPP is about a significant erosion in any standards that will be especially good for Chinese-made wines produced by international conglomerates that will flood traditional markets.