TTP: What's good for the goose...

Trade Minister Tim Groser delivered an important message to the business community this week when he emphasised the need to remain competitive in the tradeables sector of the export economy.

He described the impact of international trade distortions, which have affected New Zealand more than any other developed country, particularly the role of subsidies and market access barriers.

Mr Groser talked up the prospects of free trade agreements with Russia and India, both major economies but ones lacking the free trade experience New Zealand has in spades.

In the context of the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations, he observed the US must do better than a “purely defensive” posture. He also outlined positions that New Zealand held dearly, such as the Treaty of Waitangi and Pharmac, while respecting that all countries want to protect their intellectual property.

He also noted that despite their inward-looking dairy industry, the Americans are poised to become our biggest competitors on the world dairy scene, given their huge production capability and lack of any trade deals to go with it.

Mr Groser has only one issue to overcome: his acquiescence in the kiwifruit’s WTO cover-up that the single-desk export model is not involve government protection of a privately-owned industry.

Turners & Growers’ Tony Gibbs has his dander up on this issue and I predict Mr Groser, and the government will sooner or later have to give him an answer to why a major produce company should not be allowed to export the fruit of its own IP.

With friends like these…
A couple of weeks or so back, The Economist looked hard at Australia’s politicians and found them wanting.

As I wrote a fortnight ago, the journal summarised its opinion with this observation: Just when their country has the chance to become influential in the world, they appear introverted and unable to see the big picture.

And The Economist isn’t alone. The BBC’s correspondent, Nick Bryant, has had a go in the Wall Street Journal, mincing few words:

Facile sloganeering, acrid debate and infantile behaviour from lawmakers have brought the Australian parliament into disrepute.

He is particularly critical of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who

views politics primarily as a struggle for votes, factional support and helpful headlines rather than a contest of ideas.

His biggest disappointment is Ms Gillard’s lack of interest in the world scene:

By indicating she favoured being a stay-at-home prime minister she has retreated from the global arena at the very moment when Australia is ideally placed to parlay its strategic alliance with the US and its commercial rapport with China into a much more significant regional and global role

Since Bryant’s article appeared, the government’s standing has worsened. One example of poor policy-making is the sudden halt of live cattle shipments to Indonesia for at least six months.

This was prompted by a TV report showing animal abuse and the poor standards of hygiene under Muslim livestock slaughtering conditions.

Other commentators have pointed out that this was made well known to the government at the time the programme was being developed in April, but nothing was done until after the broadcast.

The result is an industry in disarray, millions of dollars in stock exchange losses from the companies involved and the likelihood of Australia losing export markets.

No laughing matter
The notion of a half-American lesbian blogger in downtown Damascus proved too tempting for the social-media obsessed world of journalism.

So imagine the embarrassment when Tom MacMaster’s hoax was exposed, raising a storm of protest that prompted the BBC World Service to run news items and even devote an entire World Have Your Say to the fuss.

Mr MacMaster’s Gay Girl in Damascus blog site has since been closed, which is a pity as his views on the Middle East were imaginative and entertaining. He even embellished it with his alter ego, Amina, being taken away by government security agents and a “cousin” posting blogs.

Like many others trapped by media indignation, Mr MacMaster, a 40-year-old post-grad at a university in Scotland, was forced to recant and apologise to all concerned. This tongue lashing from experts quoted by the Guardian’s Kira Chochrane is typical:

''I think the rise of identity politics – a concerted effort to give marginalised people a voice – has made some white heterosexual men a little paranoid or insecure. So they invent an oppression and position themselves as victims.” (Iman Qureshi, a Pakistani lesbian)

Star Suckers has more on how you can fool the tabloid media and make money.

Hope turn to gloom
Syria’s intransigent dictatorship is likely to represent the end of what has been called the Arab Spring – a misnamed allusion to the failure 1968 uprising against communism in Prague.

Sure, Yemen’s skedaddled off to Saudi Arabia this week with his two wives and a 50-strong cortège while Libya’s Gaddafi is hanging on against the Nato bombings.

But Bahrain’s royals are safe and so are undemocratic regimes from Morocco to Oman.

The bigger picture, as painted by historian Niall Ferguson, is bleak as the world’s media’s attention turns away from Tunisia and Egypt.

While parts of the Arab world have benefited significantly from the mayhem, due to higher oil prices, the Institute of International Finance predicts both countries will fall into recession this year along with Lebanon, Syria and Morocco.

All are afflicted with high youth unemployment, rising food prices, a lack of European tourists, shortages and capital flight.

This was to be expected and cannot be countered by stepped up western aid, desirable though this may be. Another unfortunate side-effect is likely to be a rise in Islamic extremism.

Syria is already accused (by the US) of being assisted by Iran and Hizbollah to repress its population, while Turkey, helped by a few activists from New Zealand, is restaging another assault on Israel’s arms blockade against Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor reports on an outbreak of “spy paranoia:”

Anti-Israeli sentiment is strong across Egypt. Stirring up xenophobic passions is a lot easier than lucidly explaining a program to lift the country out of poverty, and the anti-Israeli cudgel is likely to be used by Islamists and Egypt's current military rulers alike.