Questions raised over Rawiri Waititi’s suggestion Māori need their own trade agreements

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi says government processes and procedures are impeding Māori businesses' abilities to trade. Photo / Angus Dreaver, RNZ

A trade expert says it’s unclear what problem Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi is trying to solve by advocating for Māori to have their own trade agreements.

Waititi raised the issue during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report on Monday.

“This is what tino rangatiratanga is - it’s being able to manage our own affairs; it’s being able to have our own trade agreements; it’s being able to have the ability to manage our own whenua - where we’re not paying rates to councils, which continue to ignore Māori land ownership,” he said.

“We were trading with the world before the Crown assumed ownership of this country and assumed sovereignty…

“We should be free to be able to trade according to us.”

Asked what was stopping Māori businesses from doing so, Waititi said government regulations and processes.

John Ballingall, of Sense Partners economic consultancy, noted it was usually other countries’ standards around product safety for example that could be “exacting at times” for New Zealand exporters.

He noted Māori businesses faced the same rules as non-Māori businesses when trying to enter a market.

Having worked alongside Te Taumata, a firm that advocates for Māori on the trade front, Ballingall recognised there could be room for the Government to do more to support Māori businesses.

However, he noted that more recent trade agreements, including those New Zealand has with the United Kingdom and the European Union, include chapters designed to lift the profile of Māori exporters.

They also provide avenues through which Māori businesses can form relationships with indigenous groups, including through specific trade missions for Māori businesses.

Ballingall said that over the past decade, successive governments had recognised the need to increase their engagement with Māori businesses to ensure it isn’t just the usual suspects - such as Fonterra and Zespri - that are consulted with on trade policy.

The Treasury, in its briefing to the new finance minister, said, “The Māori economy – made up of individuals, small and medium enterprises, iwi businesses, trusts and post-settlement entities among others – has seen growth faster than the rest of the economy and represented 6.8 per cent of national GDP in 2018.”

The Treasury said that on the one hand, Māori exporters had benefited from high global commodity prices, but on the other, the pandemic saw tourism operators take a hit, while land-based primary industries had been affected by bad weather related to climate change.

“Māori are gaining qualifications at a faster rate than the total population, and there is a growing proportion of Māori in higher-skilled employment, but educational achievement metrics still fall short of those for the general population,” Treasury said.

“Māori also have lower-than-average rates of home ownership which, along with differences in lenders’ treatment of Māori jointly-owned land, have made it more difficult for Māori businesses to access capital for business development.”

Ballingall believed Māori businesses had great stories to tell in terms of their values and cultural underpinnings, including their attachment to the land.

This could help them differentiate themselves from their competitors on the world stage.

“The key thing is ensuring funding is made available for them to go offshore and tell that story,” Ballingall said.

“You don’t need a separate trade agreement to do that.”

Jenee Tibshraeny is the Herald’s Wellington business editor, based in the Parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.