Advocacy Issues in 2016

By Chris Smellie, NZFGA

2016 has not seen a lot of activity with regard to Advocacy issues to date, but there are two issues which the association has previously made submissions on.

Update on Hazardous Substances Reform

The most significant change in this legislation is that the rules around the use of hazardous substances will move from the ‘Hazardous Substances & New Organisms Act’ [HSNO] to the ‘Health & Safety at Work Act’ [HSW] overseen by WorkSafe NZ.

The Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] will still be responsible for approving hazardous substances and setting the rules for classification, labelling, safety data sheets, and packaging. ‘EPA Notices’ will be the form in which the new rules are set. The association will be able to make submissions on the ‘EPA Notices’ if it so wishes.

All this related legislation – Health & Safety at Work Act’, the Hazardous Substances regulations [HSW] and the ‘EPA Notices’ will be completed by the end of the year and come into force in the middle of 2017. In time, the HSNO classification system will also be updated to a version of the ‘Globally Harmonised System’ of classification.

Trade (Anti dumping and Countervailing Duties) Amendment Bill

This bill introduces what is known as a ‘Public interest test’ into the current anti dumping and countervailing [levies against producer incentives in the exporting country] legislation.

This is already difficult legislation for small businesses to use, adding the public interest test simply adds to the uncertainty of an application under the legislation. The association could make a further brief submission along the following lines

According to business statistics NZ, 97% of businesses have fewer than 20 employees, the majority of flower growers comfortably fit this category.

These 97% of businesses employ 33% of all employees and of course provide an income for their owners, who may represent 50% or 33% of all people working in many small businesses. So we have a situation where 40% to 50% of the working population receive their income from these 97% of businesses.

And already we have a situation where it is beyond the scope of many small businesses to put together the requirements to trigger an anti dumping investigation as outlined in Part 4, 10 clauses a) to n).

Success of an Anti Dumping investigation and any subsequent improvement to a businesses’ trading position through an imposed levy is by no means assured for businesses using the current legislation.

Adding part 6 [the public interest test] with review stages 1) & 2) as well as a limited review, makes the process even less assured of a positive outcome for the applicant.

In other words the legislation will become out of reach for flower growers and most other small businesses.

Germac Report

Andy Warren our GERMAC representative has again sent a copy of the minutes from the latest GERMAC meeting.

Reading through these minutes one appreciates the complexity and detail on the issues generally requiring considerable scientific input.  The best I can do here is to provide the topic headings which will give a sense of the range of issues discussed.

• Request from NZ Avocados to become GERMAC members

• Barriers to plant Imports

• Value proposition for Germplasm

• Policy development on Germplasm imports

• Import Health Standards [IHS] – Status & review

• Tissue culture pathways

• Level 3 Import facilities – Pricing structures

• Border inspection and clearance discussion

• Plant Germplasm (imports) work programme update.