New Zealand Deputy Secretary of Trade Vangelis Vitalis made headlines in August when he spoke of many seafood exporters failing to take advantage of free trade agreement benefits at the annual Seafood New Zealand conference.
New research conducted by Seafood New Zealand and Aquaculture New Zealand, with support from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, however, suggests that the losses were initially overstated.
Vitalis’s keynote address to the conference, in which he said that up to 40 percent of exporters were failing to take advantage of the preferential FTAs, initially left the industry in some confusion, according to the New Zealand Herald.
At the time, Seafood New Zealand Head Lisa Futscheck said that his warning had “highlighted a gap between what the officials are telling us around what is required and what our sector had understood was required.” Futscheck said her organization would work to help their members take advantage of the “returns from these amazing free trade agreements.”
Follow-up research provided a clearer picture of the situation, however …
