STATE TRADING
Questions Posed By CHILE
regarding the new and full notification of NEW ZEALAND[1]
The following communication, dated 7 October
2016, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Chile.
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As mentioned in the last meeting of the
Working Group on State Trading Enterprises, as well as the Agriculture
Committee in June, New Zealand is undertaking amendments on the Kiwifruit
Export Regulations 1999.
As stated in the current regulation
(Kiwifruit Export Regulations 1999), Zespri's core business is:
"a) the purchase of New Zealand-grown
kiwifruit for export where the point of acquisition of title to fruit is at
FOBS6 and the export of that fruit;
b) excludes the export at FOBS of kiwifruit
for consumption in Australia; and
c) excludes the sale of kiwifruit in New
Zealand."
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7 Regulation 11(2) provides that Zespri is able to supply the New Zealand
market provided the level of sales is incidental to the size of the total New
Zealand market, and provided the total sales do not exceed 300,000 trays of
kiwifruit.
According to the latest information
provided in the Ministry of Primary Industry's website, the Cabinet agreed
changes to the Kiwifruit Export Regulations 1999, one of them being Zespri's
core business. Regarding this issue, it notes that the purpose is to
"clarify that Zespri's core business includes the marketing of New
Zealand-grown kiwifruit, market development for New Zealand-grown kiwifruit,
and kiwifruit research and development." The objective of these changes
would be "to provide more certainty about the business activities that
Zespri can undertake without seeking the approval of its providers of capital,
while also streamlining the process by which Zespri can seek approval."
Moreover, paragraph 21 of the Nairobi
Decision regarding Export Competition states that "Members shall make
their best efforts to ensure that the use of export monopoly powers by
agricultural exporting state trading enterprises is exercised in a manner that
minimizes trade distorting effects and does not result in displacing or
impeding the exports of another Member."
Given that Zespri represents more than 40%
of the world's kiwifruit exports, holding significant shares in many different
markets around the globe, the Government of Chile would like to ask the
following question:
How will the Government of New Zealand
ensure that the "market development" strategies undertaken in foreign
markets- that will be part of the core business of Zespri (a private company,
as New Zealand commonly alleges)- will comply with the international
commitments undertaken by the New Zealand Government, particularly those
recently entered in Nairobi?
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