Rt Hon Winston Peters
Minister of Foreign Affairs

20 March 2007
Speech Notes

Friendships old and new
Address to the Opportunity UK Trade Summit
Sky City Convention Centre
Auckland
8am, Tuesday 20 March

Thank you for the invitation to this event. Can I extend a warm welcome and the government's best wishes to His Royal Highness, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.

Thank you to those responsible for organising this event – one of many events to mark export year 2007.

As leader of the party responsible for Export Year 2007, it is a great pleasure to see an event of this calibre forming part this most important initiative. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, it is pleasing to celebrate and be part of the invigoration of New Zealand's longest-standing international relationship.

As the title of this event – Opportunity UK – implies, there is much that we have to look forward to as our relationship deepens and evolves.

A brief assessment of our shared trading histories highlights the strong basis of our relationship and explains why we should be optimistic about future engagements.

Indeed the core rationale for this event, and the many others which form part of Export Year 2007, is the belief that we can and will do better. New Zealand is an export dependent nation – we either trade or we wither away.

We are also an innovative and creative nation, which has demonstrated that despite the tyranny of distance, we have much to offer the marketplaces of the globe. This is no more evident than in our longstanding and dynamic trading relationship with the United Kingdom.

Despite our geographical remoteness from each other, the United Kingdom has been one of our most important trading partners. It is arguably our most established trading relationship, with its roots in the first shipment of refrigerated lamb to the United Kingdom 125 years ago.

The UK’s importance as a trading partner peaked in the 1930s, when 90 per cent of our total merchandise exports went to Britain.

This, of course, changed with the entry of the United Kingdom to what was then the European Economic Community in 1973. At that time, the UK was the destination for around a third of our exports.

Geopolitics has developed significantly since then, and while our trading ties have faded, our relationship has nonetheless been consolidated by people-to-people links, government-to-government ties on many different levels and a vast array of cultural, educational and business exchanges.

The UK is our second-largest source of tourists, and the single largest source of permanent and long-term migrants to New Zealand.

New Zealand's exports to the UK continue to be dominated by agricultural produce, to the tune of a little over $1 billion in the year to December 2006 – almost two-thirds of our total exports to the UK.

Indeed many New Zealand products such as New Zealand lamb, wine, apples and kiwifruit can easily be found on UK supermarket shelves. But we have both moved beyond the stage of New Zealand simply being consigned to the status as a "food basket" for European nations.

We are more ambitious than this and our ingenuity and creative flair is increasingly being recognised and rewarded.

Manufactured products are increasing making an impact in the United Kingdom, with companies such as Navman having had phenomenal success in the UK market.

The United Kingdom is a popular choice for innovative New Zealand businesses looking to grow their operations, both in the UK market and as a base for expanding into Europe.

In fact, since 2004, some 26 New Zealand ICT companies have set up in the UK, with a New Zealand company, Metra, recently being nominated for the Hottest Overseas Prospect at the UK Technology Innovation and Growth Awards 2007.

Such examples highlight there is value in focusing on building our export capacity in more diverse and innovative sectors.

We can have confidence that with a collaborative and focussed effort we can be successful. The ice has long been broken in the UK and the time is now to dramatically bolster our export performance.

The rationale for a dramatic increase in our export performance is manifest in a few sobering statistics. Our exports have remained at about 30 per cent of gross domestic product since the mid 1980s – well below most other small OECD countries.

Furthermore, New Zealand exports are concentrated in a small number of firms: 151 firms are responsible for three quarters of exports and only 580 firms export more than $5 million per annum.

For a national economy built on small and medium sized businesses, the glaring chasm in our export performance is patently obvious. Far too many New Zealand firms fail to grasp the potential of part of the global economy – whether they export products, export services such as tourism or education services or supply exporters.

The simply fact remains that strong participation in the global economy is vital for our economic success.

Export Year 2007 is therefore designed to provide impetus to New Zealand business to improve our long-term export performance. It provides a focus on New Zealand exporters and the challenge we face in improving our export performance.

A constructive and forward-looking partnership between the government, business and stakeholders is essential if we are to create the environment New Zealand needs to thrive. .

Events such as today's provide such an opportunity to expand, build on and reinvigorate one of our most enduring trading relationships. But while governments can facilitate and open doors, it is business that must walk through them and grasp these opportunities.

The challenge is before all of us today to take hold of the prospects afforded by this summit and the other events of Export Year 2007 and translate them into real returns.

It was Thomas Edison who said; "opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

This audience more than most knows exporting is hard work, but work that is worth the effort. We can be more successful exporters. We have the ingenuity, creativity and innovative people with the drive and determination to succeed. Many of you are in the room.

Today's forum is an opportunity to strengthen and expand a long-standing and most valued trading relationship.

It is a great place to start.

ENDS

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