Moore best man to champion NZ meat

The appointment of Mike Moore as NZ's ambassador to the US is a positive move for our sheep and beef farming sector. The former head of the WTO  has been told by Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully that a free trade deal with the US is a priority once he settles in Washington and given he has been hand-picked for the role because of his considerable experience in the area of trade liberalisation, this is good news. On the books is the opportunity to have the US join the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would be a significant step towards trade liberalisation within the Asia Pacific region. The first round of negotiations to expand the TPP to include the United States, Australia, Peru and Vietnam was scheduled to take place last March. However, following the Obama inauguration last January, the US postponed the first set of talks to allow time for a review of all US trade agreements and policy priorities reports The NZ Herald. By global trade standards NZ beef and lamb already enjoys good access to the US, but there are still likely to be significant benefits for our sheep and beef farmers when this agreement is secured, and more when other countries conclude negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Agreement. Last year the US took 177,000 tonnes of our beef. This is 48 per cent of NZ's total beef export volume, making the US by far our largest beef market.