19 May 2009 - Meat & Wool New Zealand says comments by the United States Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, that he wants to continue the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) talks, is an important signal.

Meat & Wool New Zealand Chairman, Mike Petersen said that after a period of review, while the Obama administration took office, it is now good to hear that they are looking for more trade engagement with the Asia-Pacific area.

"There is a lot of potential for New Zealand sheep and beef farmers to further develop markets in the United States.

"The US is our biggest beef export market and while these exports have fallen slightly in recent years, this has been due to opportunities in other markets like North Asia."

Mr Petersen said while this is very early days, it is a positive free trade signal.

Key Statistics The United States is the number one market for New Zealand beef exports, taking 42%of New Zealand's beef exports. It was worth $785 million in the year ending December 2008. The United States imported 174,000 tonnes of New Zealand beef in 2008 under New Zealand's CSTQ. For this quota there is an in-quota tariff of US4.4c/kg. This amounts to around NZ$12.8 million paid in tariffs. The out-of-quota tariff is 26.4%. New Zealand pays tariffs of 0.7-2.8c/kg on sheepmeat exports to the United States. The United States is New Zealand's second most valuable market for lamb behind the European Union. New Zealand exports around 24,000 tonnes of sheepmeat to the United States worth about $218 million annually. New Zealand exported 2,978 tonnes of wool (clean) to the United States in 2008, worth approximately NZ$13.2 million. The tariff on wool fibre ranges from zero to in excess of US18.7c/kg clean.