STATE TRADING

New ZEaland's Replies to QUESTIONS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION^[1]
REGARDING NEW ZEALAND'S NEW AND FULL NOTIFICATION^[2]

The following communication, dated and received on 31 October 2022, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of New Zealand.

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Question 1:

With respect to point III.C of notification G/STR/N/19/NZL and the statistical information provided in the tables, could New Zealand provide more granular data, including volume and price about its total quantity exported by country of destination, including the split between the STE and the collaborative marketing arrangements for the last 5 years? Has the quantity of kiwifruit exported under the collaborative marketing regime increased over the last 5 years?

Reply:

Aggregate export data for Zespri has been provided in G/STR/N/19/NZL (Table II). Information on collaborative marketing arrangement approvals can be found on Kiwifruit New Zealand's (KNZ) website at: https://www.knz.co.nz/regulation-15-collaborative-marketing-results.

Has the quantity of kiwifruit exported under the collaborative marketing regime increased over the last 5 years?

Reply:

Please refer to page 7 of KNZ’s annual report. The quantity has increased over the last 5 years. KNZ’s Annual Report is available at: https://knz.ibcdn.nz/media/2022_08_11_2021-22-kiwifruit-new-zealand-annual-report-finalpdf.pdf.

Question 2:

With respect to point III.H and the statistical information provided in the tables, could New Zealand provide more information about the kiwifruit market structure? Also, would it possible to elaborate on why, despite the duty free access for imported kiwifruit, the imports are very low?

Reply:

Kiwifruit import rates are a result of market factors.

Question 3:

In reply G/STR/Q1/NZL/20 dated 18 October 2018, New Zealand provided the following reply to a question of the EU: "Given Zespri's regulated automatic, but not exclusive, right to export kiwifruit from New Zealand to markets other than Australia, the Kiwifruit Export Regulations 1999 require that Zespri "must not unjustifiably discriminate among suppliers and potential suppliers in respect of – (a) a decision on whether to purchase kiwifruit; or (b) the terms of the purchase contract." The Regulations set out that "Discrimination (or the extent of the discrimination) is justifiable if it is on commercial grounds". "Kiwifruit New Zealand, the independent regulator, is responsible for monitoring and enforcement of non-discrimination rules."

In light of the above-provided reply and the information in table II of notification G/STR/N/19/NZL, could New Zealand give more information on the other companies exporting kiwifruit:

a)   Which are their main destination markets?

b)   What is the status of the other companies (private, cooperative or state-owned)?

c)    Could New Zealand provide information on the average export prices of the other exporters?

Reply:

This information can be found on Kiwifruit NZ’s (KNZ) website at: https://www.knz.co.nz/regulation-15-collaborative-marketing-results.

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