[Introduction] What is international trade? Amongst the rhetoric in the media coverage of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), it is often forgotten that it is businesses not governments that, to a large extent, engage and drive world trade. It is businesses who identify opportunities in other regions and international trade is simply an aggregation of the fruits of those transactions on a national basis. For example, if a firm in Wellington sees an opportunity in Auckland, no one pays any attention. If the same firm sees an opportunity in another country to sell an identical good - politicians and other interested parties feel they have a right to comment on, become involved in, or even try to stop the transaction.
In this paper we examine the issues and debates surrounding temporary migration. This is a critical issue, since to attract high quality human capital, New Zealand must compete in the global market place. By examining the economic context in which temporary migration takes place we will gain a clearer understanding of the factors which influence this form of migration and the reasons behind the changes in the composition of migration.
Pressures for the reform of agricultural policies in wealthy countries will increase. Current policies are expensive and inefficient and impose substantial costs on countries that cannot afford to subsidize their agricultural sectors. A major political impediment to policy reform is the real or assumed costs of adjustment that would be imposed on farmers. In this paper, we illustrate some of the key issues by reference to the New Zealand experience. Issues covered include adjustments in output and input markets, productivity and innovation. Adjustments by farmers and others, along with reforms outside of agriculture, ensured that farm incomes and the agricultural sector recovered from the initial shock of deregulation.
The mid-term review of the WTO Doha Round of trade negotiations held recently in Cancun was concluded in a premature fashion by the hosts. Participants were not moving forward towards a process that would see the talks move towards a final agreement in 2004. This was a disappointment for New Zealand because we rely strongly on the WTO multilateral framework to further liberalise world trade. This is especially so in agricultural products where it was hoped that after the modest beginnings of the Uruguay Round, signed in 1994, progress could be made more quickly. The stop/start negotiations of the Uruguay Round were not dissimilar. Cancun stumbled on the Singapore issues, and before agricultural proposals had been dealt with. This fortuitous situation provides an important opening for New Zealand agriculture but a great deal of work will need to be done. The other positive feature coming out of Cancun is that the slippage in timing is likely to be great (see below), so New Zealand has the time even with its modest resources, to influence the direction of the agricultural talks. NZIER hosted a Roundtable discussion on the opportunities and challenges that now confront New Zealand, yesterday in Wellington. Participants included representatives from private sector organisations, government ministries and research organisations. This short paper is a précis of the views expressed at that meeting and the valuable background material of the Washington based International Policy Council which Dr Thompson chairs. The discussion was aimed specifically at agricultural trade liberalisation efforts and focuses on the broad geo-political issues that are likely to be in play in the future.
