New Zealand to keep up pressure on agriculture subsidies at WTO: trade minister

New Zealand will continue its campaign through the World Trade Organization (WTO) against agricultural subsidies by other governments, Trade Minister Todd McClay said Thursday.

"We are an efficient producer of products that some of our trading partners want to protect from competition. And we're a big trader in some products where trade is a small part of international production -- here, of course, I am talking about agriculture," McClay said in a published speech to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.

McClay said that while free trade agreements (FTAs) had delivered enormous economic benefits to New Zealand, key markets remained locked especially to New Zealand's pillar dairy industry.

The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) provided duty-free exports to TPP partners "on everything but sensitive dairy items into Japan, the U.S., Canada and Mexico and beef into Japan," he said.

"The WTO will remain important. It's the only forum where we can achieve disciplines on agricultural subsidies; and with New Zealand companies trading globally, setting trade rules globally through the WTO makes sense for New Zealand companies."

The WTO Ministerial meeting in Nairobi in December last year had "surprised us all by delivering the elimination of agriculture export subsidies -- a decades-old New Zealand ambition, recognized widely as very good for New Zealand."

"Nairobi was a success. We should capitalize on this momentum," said McClay.

"We think that domestic support in agriculture should be squarely on the agenda as one of the issues needing an outcome at the next Ministerial Conference in 2017." Endit