The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Thomas Coughlan: Will Jacinda Ardern get an EU trade deal tomorrow?

Thomas Coughlan
By Thomas Coughlan
Political Editor·NZ Herald·
29 Jun, 2022 10:29 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron at a meeting where Ardern pressed the need for a trade deal. Photo / AP

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron at a meeting where Ardern pressed the need for a trade deal. Photo / AP

ANALYSIS:

European trade negotiators are said to be some of the best in the business.

British negotiators reported the Europeans' Herculean stamina during Brexit talks, as the European negotiators waged a war of attrition, winding down the clock as talks repeatedly dragged on into the wee small hours on days with crucial deadlines.

Then, as if by miracle, a deal would be struck just as it needed to be.

These people are good, very good.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Overnight tonight, New Zealand will discover if New Zealand's trade negotiators, led by MFAT's Vangelis Vitalis and Trade Minister David O'Connor have managed to emerge from long sessions burning the midnight oil with a suitable deal.

The signs so far don't look promising.

Each day she has been in Europe this week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said she's quite happy to leave without a deal if what is on the table is not good enough.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Reading between the lines, this means market access for New Zealand's exporters. She's acknowledged the areas New Zealand wants wins just so happen to be areas where the EU is particularly "sensitive", like agriculture.

There are good reasons for Ardern to walk away if the EU's offer is poor. A bad deal would set a bad standard for future deals, and Ardern has political cover to walk away if she wants to - National's trade spokesman Todd McClay has said she should leave Europe without a deal, rather than sign a poor one.

You'd have to say, based on the gloomy tenor of Ardern's discussions, things don't look good for a deal tomorrow.

But then again, most European negotiations look they'll end in deadlock until a breakthrough at the 11th hour. If this deal was somehow salvaged, it would not be an unprecedented reversal of fortune, it would be very normal.

European domestic politics bodes ill for a deal. The EU is protectionist to its bones, erecting a wall of tariffs around its tightly regulated single market.

European governments tend to be fearful of liberalising international trade, even between European countries. French wine producers once hijacked trucks transporting Spanish wine, emptying gallons (sorry, litres) of the stuff onto a highway, citing a trade grievance.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who likely supports a deal at a personal, will no doubt be cautious of supporting it too forcefully, having been dealt a drubbing in recent French Parliamentary elections. He lost support on both his right and his left, each side backing a more protectionist trade policy. Similar stories play out across Europe.

New Zealand's trade to the EU is restricted by quotas and tariffs. A certain quantity of key exports (a "quota") are allowed to enter the EU at lower tariffs. New Zealand is looking to both increase its quotas and reduce the tariffs that apply within those quotas.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

One problem with what the EU currently offers is that even in areas where its quotas are generous, the tariffs within those quotas are so high that New Zealand exporters fail to fill the quota because the tariffs make their goods so competitive.

That is why negotiators cannot just accept larger quotas, they need to reduce tariffs too.

It's not clear whether New Zealand is using the war in Ukraine to bolster the case for a good agreement, either by asking for New Zealand's strong response to Russian aggression to be rewarded with a deal, or by arguing that New Zealand's agricultural exporters could help European nations grappling with high food costs.

One area Ardern has brought up recently is climate change. The EU likes to see itself as the vanguard of the international climate response. Ardern reckons New Zealand's reputation on climate change is good enough that the EU could use the agreement as an example of how climate change could fit into future trade agreements.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently said the EU had stalled trade negotiations with Australia over the previous government's poor climate record. He has managed to get a commitment to restart trade talks in the coming months.

Ardern could easily look at this and think if climate change really is all that important to the EU's trade policy, New Zealand should be the first cab off the rank.

She told reporters today her message to the EU was if you could not sign a high-quality climate change-friendly trade agreement with New Zealand, than who could you sign one with.

We'll get an early answer to that question tomorrow.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from The Country

Premium
The Country

On The Up: A royal new venture with King Bees Honey

22 Jun 05:00 PM
The Country

Vege tips: Winter, time for onions and strawberries

21 Jun 05:00 PM
The Country

The ABCs of wool in 1934

21 Jun 05:00 PM

Help for those helping hardest-hit

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

Premium
On The Up: A royal new venture with King Bees Honey

On The Up: A royal new venture with King Bees Honey

22 Jun 05:00 PM

Cate and Mike King talk to Tom Raynel about their new business King Bees Honey.

Vege tips: Winter, time for onions and strawberries

Vege tips: Winter, time for onions and strawberries

21 Jun 05:00 PM
The ABCs of wool in 1934

The ABCs of wool in 1934

21 Jun 05:00 PM
Why NZ needs its own Clarkson's Farm

Why NZ needs its own Clarkson's Farm

21 Jun 05:00 PM
How a Timaru mum of three budding chefs stretched her grocery shop
sponsored

How a Timaru mum of three budding chefs stretched her grocery shop

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP