[PEN-L:1439] Re: New Zealand pushing for producer board reforms

[Bill Rosenberg <w.rosenberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ken Hanly <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> This material is from Reuters (Wellington N.Z.) and appear in the
> Manitoba Co-operator for October 29, 1998, p. 25)
>
>  The New Zealand government on October 20 stepped up efforts
> to convince farmers that producer board reform was in their
> interests.....

Yes this battle has been going on in New Zealand. It's an interesting
one because the government is losing it. The ruling National Party is
traditionally a farmer based one, but with its attempt to push
deregulation into this particular farming heartwood, it failed.
Perhaps some farmers will learn from this how their leaders are
misleaders.

What happened, briefly, was that in the Budget mid-year, all producer
boards were instructed to give the government a time-line for the
demise of their special status. This status varies: the highly
successful Dairy Board, the Apple and Pear Marketing Board, and the
Kiwifruit Board, all have monopoly exporter status (like Canada's
Wheat Board from what I have gathered from the PEN-L discussion).
Others, like the Meat Board and Wool Board, have given away most of
their rights, and do little more than levy producers for research and
marketing.

The reasoning given by the government was that if it wanted to make
any more progress in trade agreements - specifically it is starting
to negotiate a free trade agreement with the US but has been delayed
by the loss of fast-track in the US - it would have to dismantle the
rights of the producer boards. The US Ambassador reinforced this. As
Ken says, they produced weighty Treasury reports - which, however,
were totally unconvincing, and even admitted in the end that there
were benefits in the current arrangements. Nonetheless they
recommended this course.

The producer boards, thankfully and sensibly, stood their ground.
Ad hoc farmer organisations sprung up, and pickets of government
ministers reinforced their message. The biggest board, the Dairy
Board, refused to cooperate and the government has been forced to
back down for the time being.

This all will have long term consequences for farmer politics in New
Zealand - their traditional representative, Federated Farmers,
has been one of the most rabid cheerleaders for deregulation, attacks
on unions, free trade agreements, etc. It has only recently lost its
government subsidy (yes!), and is losing membership.

It presumably also has consequences for the trade and investment
agreements the government is planning for us.

Bill Rosenberg