$8m govt “co-investment” puts meat traders on the gravy train – does this mean we stop beefing about farm subsidies?
This country likes to boast of having the lowest level of agricultural subsidies in the OECD – less than one percent of producers’ income. Our agriculture is a highly-productive, market-oriented sector, with minimal government intervention, we bray. Tariffs on agricultural products are among the lowest worldwide.
There would have been no surprise, therefore, that when the world’s trade ministers headed to a WTO meeting in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand was calling for an immediate capping of agricultural subsidies and urgency in reducing them to prevent and correct production and trade distortion.
