New Zealand beef and cheese exporters to Japan will be robbed of the recently acquired advantage over US producers, who will gain access to the high-value market on the same terms as CPTPP signatories, despite the US walking away from the trade and investment pact.
Japan and the US signed a 'limited' trade agreement when US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met this week in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, liberalising trade in just a few, mainly agricultural product areas.
However, New Zealand trade policy-watchers were quick to express concern about the precedent set by allowing the US the same market access as those won under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, but without making any of the same trade-offs as New Zealand and the other 10 signatories to the ground-breaking Pacific Rim pact. The CPTPP almost collapsed when Trump abandoned US participation as his first executive act as president after his inauguration in 2017.
"This cannot be good," said former trade negotiator Charles Finny.
It would discourage other countries from signing up to CPTPP if they believed side deals could be achieved for similar access without making the same concessions, would create more competition for New Zealand beef and cheese, and was "illegal as it does not meet the World Trade Organisation 'substantially all trade test'" for free trade agreements, he said.