Fears rise over TPP access among New Zealand dairy leaders

New Zealand's farm industry has stepped up pressure on the government Friday amid fears that dairy access could be frozen out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks in Hawaii.

The Federated Farmers industry group urged the government to " hold firm" on a deal for agriculture in what is thought to be the final round of talks before the controversial trade agreement is signed.

Federated Farmers dairy chair Andrew Hoggard said on Friday he was adamant that a trade deal that failed to include "meaningful access" for dairy was not a free trade deal.

"Let's be clear. Dairy is our largest export earner. It would be like the Japanese concluding a deal that didn't have anything in it for automotive or technology trade," Hoggard said in a statement.

Some of the key countries in the talks held positions that made little sense, he said, adding, "In particular the United States. It exports a greater volume of dairy products into TPP countries than we in New Zealand do half as much again. They stand to gain more from a breakthrough in tariff reductions than we do."

"We would hope that the Americans will show strong leadership and stand with New Zealand and Australia in looking for a comprehensive deal for dairy. Anything else is just not in their national interest, nor their dairy farmers' interests."

Federated Farmers president William Rolleston said the public position of Canadian dairy farmers was unacceptable.

Director of international trade for Dairy Farmers of Canada Yves Leduc told Radio New Zealand on Friday that if Canada were to completely open up its market, there would be an influx of heavily subsidized dairy products from the United States.

That would reduce Canadian farmers' incomes and result in job losses in the processing sector.

"So why would I pay to save the New Zealand model?" Leduc said.

Rolleston said in the statement that New Zealand's experience from freeing up its agricultural economy was that the economic benefit of subsidies, controls and protections enabled New Zealand farmers to respond to the signals from the market, rather than be at the mercy of political whims.

"Consumers in New Zealand's free market have also benefited with lower prices, more choice and greater innovation. Why would other governments not want this for their citizens?" asked Rolleston.

"New Zealand was a founding member of these free trade negotiations. If there are countries which are not interested in free trade then they should step back from the table and allow a high quality deal to be concluded by those genuinely interested in free trade."

On Wednesday New Zealand dairy industry leaders issued a last ditch plea for dairy access before traveling to the talks in Hawaii to put their case.

The leaders of the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand ( DCANZ) and DairyNZ issued a joint statement voicing concern over suggestions that some countries were pushing for New Zealand to accept a substandard outcome for dairy market access.

DCANZ chairman Malcolm Bailey and DairyNZ chairman John Luxton said dairy accounted for about 30 percent of New Zealand's merchandise trade exports and was an essential contributor to New Zealand's rural communities.

On Friday, Bailey told Radio New Zealand that the offers on dairy from the United States, Canada and Japan were "appallingly bad."

"If we can't get something reasonable for dairy, it's just unthinkable for New Zealand to conclude here," Bailey said.

"We're not even 10 percent of the way to where we need to be." Endi