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Advocacy for business by the BusinessNZ Network | |
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Budget forecasts indicating NZ will avoid recession are positive, BusinessNZ’s Catherine Beard says. “Budget investment in infrastructure and new scientific research centres are forward-looking. However, overall the 2023 Budget lacks an overall plan to get NZ back on a path towards fiscal surplus while laying a platform for private sector growth. Perhaps some of the powder is being kept dry for election announcements later, however action now rather than later would be preferable to lift certainty for business.” | | | |
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Manufacturing and services contract |
NZ’s manufacturing and services sectors contracted last month, with the PMI and PSI surveys showing readings of 49.1 and 49.8 respectively (readings below 50 indicate a sector is declining). The services sector received a significant drop of 4 points from the previous month. Businesses surveyed for the BNZ-BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index and BNZ-BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index cited price pressures, staffing issues and general lack of customer demand. | | | |
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Few election policies for business are in place yet, with some parties slow to unveil their election policies, but debates over recent months suggest Labour would bring in pay equity and pay gap regulation; National would stop foreigners buying farms to convert to forestry for carbon credits; National and ACT would ditch Fair Pay Agreements and the oil and gas prospecting ban; ACT would let overseas investors invest more in NZ firms, and establish a Materials Equivalence Register so firms can access substitutes for scarce building materials; and the Greens would restrict livestock numbers and the amount of land able to be used for pastoral farming... | | | |
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Next week the NZ-UK Free Trade Agreement comes into force. From next week 99.5 percent of NZ products will enter the UK duty-free, bringing tariff savings of $37 million a year. The remaining 0.5 percent of UK tariffs will be gone within 15 years and NZ exporters stand to gain a 50 percent increase in goods exported to the UK before then. ExportNZ says the UK market access package is one of the best NZ has been able to negotiate. | | | |
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Dear Trade spokespeople... |
Ahead of the 2023 election ExportNZ has written to the Trade spokespeople of all main parties, outlining what NZ exporters would like done: • Conclude FTAs with the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Pacific Alliance (Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile) • Work on trade relationships with India and the US • Work towards reinstating the WTO Disputes Settlement process • Enable digital/paperless trade systems • Enable more NZTE support for exporters in overseas markets • Allow accelerated depreciation for R&D and property, plant and equipment • Get better regulations for processed food exporters.
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Bed taxes are on the horizon again, with a ruling that Auckland’s ‘targeted rate’ on hotels and accommodation providers is ok after all and can proceed. The Appeal Court had previously agreed with a challenge from some hotels that the Auckland bed tax was ‘invalid and unreasonable,’ but this was overturned by the Supreme Court this month. The targeted rate is aimed at subsidising promotional activity to attract tourists to the city. Bed taxes are now expected in Auckland Council’s 2024-2034 Long Term Plan and may also appear sometime soon in Queenstown and other tourism destinations.
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AdvocacyUpdate is an update on recent activity & advocacy by the BusinessNZ Network | |
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