2 MAY 2025 STEPHEN JACOBI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR IMPACT OF TRADE WARS ON NZ My thanks to Local Government NZ for the invitation to be with you today....
Remarks to launch of “New Zealand Trade Negotiations”

NZIBF is pleased to sponsor the publication of a new book by Professor Stephen Hoadley – “New Zealand Trade Negotiations”. This is what Executive Director Stephen Jacobi said at the launch in Wellington on 20 July.
It’s a pleasure to be with you this evening.
The NZ International Business Forum is delighted to join with the NZ Institute of International Affairs in launching this important new book.
Our warmest congratulations to Professor Stephen Hoadley for this achievement.
Professor Hoadley’s work advances our understanding of both the extent and the success of New Zealand’s trade negotiating effort over recent decades.
It’s surprising, given the importance of international trade to New Zealand’s economy, that so little is written about this effort in the academic literature.
Some years ago, in the aftermath of the riots at the WTO meeting in Seattle, the (then) Trade Liberalisation Network was established, under Brian Lynch’s leadership, to enhance New Zealanders’ support and understanding for trade.
The TLN initiated a campaign under the slogan “Trade Rules OK” – aiming to show that free trade was not the law of the jungle, but a deliberate and considered effort to set the rules of the game and deliver advantage for New Zealand.
A generation later, in the face of new questioning about the pace and extent of globalisation in some parts of the world, the TLN’s mantle has passed to the NZ International Business Forum.
NZIBF’s campaign is organised around the theme of Tradeworks – please follow us on the web, on Twitter, on Facebook and on Linked In !
The media may have changed, but the message is broadly the same – trade works for New Zealand, trade keeps New Zealanders working and the search for better trade rules is as pressing today as it ever was.
I cite all this because Professor Hoadley’s book provides ample academic evidence that trade rules are ok and trade can and does work for New Zealand.
Professor Hoadley’s book chronicles the ups and downs, the reversals and occasional triumphs in the history of New Zealand’s negotiations with our major partners and in instruments like TPP and in the WTO.
In so doing he brings to light some extraordinarily challenging situations – some existential even – which over time have faced New Zealand as a trading nation.
With his eight phases of trade negotiations, Professor Hoadley establishes a useful framework for understanding how these complex policy initiatives are progressed by successive generations of talented trade negotiators.
We at the NZ International Business Forum are particularly pleased at the attention paid to the role of business, something frequently overlooked as academics debate the externalities associated with trade.
This is not to suggest such debate is unjustified – on the contrary, the value of Professor Hoadley’s work is that the debate will be more grounded in fact and the challenges facing negotiators will be better understood.
This, in essence, is why the NZ International Business Forum as a group of business leaders concerned with the way New Zealand integrates into global markets, chose to support the publication of this book.
We welcome the debate about trade and are pleased to participate in it alongside other members of civil society.
I should like to take this opportunity to extend our collective thanks for the work Trade Minister Todd McClay doing to lift the quality of the trade debate and take the trade message directly to the people of New Zealand.
We welcome also the steps being taken to engage more with business and public stakeholders including through the newly re-established Ministerial Advisory Group, along with moves to restore the bipartisan support for trade which was a hallmark of the efforts described in Professor Hoadley’s work.
As we look at the environment for trade negotiations today we find a landscape as challenging as ever.
A new protectionism is rising in some parts of the world, while in others, particularly close to us in Asia, globalisation is continuing to expand under new models such as China’s ambitious ‘Belt and Road’ initiative.
All this requires the sort of political leadership, negotiating skill and tenacity as well as business and public support described by Professor Hoadley.
On behalf of the NZ International Business Forum, which knows that trade works, I commend this book to you all; I thank New Zealand’s negotiators for their hard work and I congratulate Professor Hoadley again for this admirable contribution to New Zealand’s economic history.
REGISTER WITH TRADE WORKS
Register to stay up to date with latest news, as well as saving and discussing articles you’re interested in.
Latest News
REMARKS TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT NZ RURAL AND PROVINCIAL SECTOR MEETING
2 MAY 2025 STEPHEN JACOBI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR IMPACT OF TRADE WARS ON NZ My thanks to Local Government NZ for the invitation to be with you today. As a resident of Napier I am all the more pleased to contribute to this rural and provincial sector meeting. Whether you...
SUBMISSION TO THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE ON A COMPREHENSIVE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH INDIA
April 2025 Introduction This submission is being made on behalf of the New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF), whose members are listed at Annex A[1]. NZIBF is a group of senior business leaders working together to promote New Zealand’s engagement in the...
LAMENTATION DAY
When President Trump spoke in the White House Rose Garden to launch his wrecking-ball “fair and reciprocal tariffs”, there were some in the audience wearing hard hats. While this was doubtless to show support for the move amongst hard-working Americans, maybe...
BUSINESS FORUM DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED WITH UNJUSTIFIED US TARIFFS
Media release, 4 April 2025 The New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF) has reacted with deep disappointment to the news that the United States will implement an additional 10 percent ad valorem tariff on New Zealand exports. “The United States is a close and...
Bull in a China Shop: Market Price Support in the Dairy Industry
Market price support policies (aka as “subsidies”) in the agriculture sector are a classic example of what is meant by 'beggar thy neighbour'. One country attempts to improve its own economic situation by intervening in the market on behalf of its producers, at the...
BUSINESS FORUM WELCOMES INDIA FTA NEGOTIATIONS
Media release, 17 March 2025 The NZ International Business Forum (NZIBF) welcomes the launch of free trade negotiations with India, announced in Delhi, and is particularly pleased that these will proceed on a comprehensive basis. “There is enormous value to be gained...
Playing the long trade game with India
Prime Minister Luxon is at last making his visit to India with a large business and community delegation. We wish them well in expanding and deepening the relationship with India. The reasons for doing so we have explained previously. Our Government’s...
SUBMISSION TO THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE
PROPOSED GREEN ECONOMY JOINT WORKING GROUP WITH CHILE AND SINGAPORE MARCH 2025 Introduction This submission is made on behalf of the New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF), whose members are listed at Annex A[1]. NZIBF is a forum of senior business leaders...
PRESENTATION TO APEC BUSINESS ADVISORY COUNCIL: ADDRESSING PROTECTIONISM AND NON TARIFF BARRIERS
BRISBANE, 24 FEBRUARY 2025 STEPHEN JACOBI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NZIBF My thanks to Anna Curzon and Stephanie Honey for giving me one last opportunity to speak to ABAC. I want to talk today about rising protectionism and proliferating non tariff barriers. It’s not a new...
Business Leaders Sound Alarm on Global Economic Uncertainty: Call for Unified APEC Action
Brisbane, Australia, 25 February 2025 - Among rising global economic tension, the APEC Business Advisory Council met in Brisbane this week to reaffirm its support for the value of trade and cooperation, and the original APEC commitment to free, fair, open and...
REMARKS TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE AND TRADE COMMITTEE – 20 FEBRUARY 2025
RATIFICATION OF NEW ZEALAND-UAE COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (CEPA) STEPHEN JACOBI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NZIBF Thank you Chair for the opportunity to appear before the Committee today. I do so on behalf of the members of the NZ International Business...
Submission by ExportNZ and TradeWorks to the Health Select Committee on the Gene Technology Bill
17th February 2025 Our Recommendations ExportNZ and the New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF) support the Government’s overall intention to modernise New Zealand’s gene technology regulations. We support the establishment of a risk-based regulatory regime...
SUBMISSION TO THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE AND TRADE SELECT COMMITTEE
RATIFICATION OF NEW ZEALAND-UAE COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (CEPA) FEBRUARY 2025 This submission is made on behalf of the New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF) and ExportNZ[1]. NZIBF is a forum of senior business leaders working together...
SOUTHERN LINK REVISITED SEMINAR, SEPT 2024
On 24 September 2024 a stakeholders seminar was held in Auckland to reassess the Southern Link concept, five years after a large conference kickstarted focused discussion of the idea (before Covid intervened). This report of the seminar discussions...
T Day has come
STOP PRESS – NOT SO FAST. This post deals with the tariffs President Trump announced on 1 February he would impose on Canada, Mexico and China. By 4 February he announced imposition of tariffs on Canada and Mexico would be suspended for 30 days (until 5 March). ...
0 Comments