Future relationship between New Zealand and Japan

I am going to talk something serious today: about one of our main trade partners, New Zealand.

For a long time, New Zealand has been importing millions of used cars from Japan but the number has dramatically decreased since last year. When the Labour Party led by ex-Prime Minister Helen Clark was in power, they have never really set harsh environmental restrictions on car imports. However, because of the pressure from civic groups, from the year 2008, only when cars meet the strict emission standard set out after the year 2004 can be imported. As a result, in the year 2008, only 97,357 cars were exported to New Zealand, which was 71.4% less than the previous year.

Checking the situation more carefully, of course, this is the main reason but there was more to it: because of sluggish credit business, US credit companies pulled out of New Zealand and now people in New Zealand cannot get low rate car loans. The high yen and rise in car prices also played a great part. For these reasons, it is expected that 2009 used car sales will drop by more than 60% compared to the year before.

Although the relationship between New Zealand and Japan is not bad (at least I believe so), it does not seem to be improving. The image Japanese have of new Zealand are mostly favourable and positive: a country with natural beauty, a peaceful and rich agricultural country, Maori culture, its people friendly toward Japan, a country they want to visit one day, etc. On the other hand, people in New Zealand similarly think of Japan favourably and positively: a country of modern technology, a country with a mixed culture of old and modern, hardworking people, etc.

However, looking from New Zealand side, Japan is the 4th main trade partner, already losing the lead to China a long time ago and the numbers of visitors to Japan are getting less and less.

Behind this issue, is the existence of the newly developing countries such as China, Korea and Singapore. Currently, we have an issue of an agreement between New Zealand and Japan. In April this year, New Zealand signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China and is now talking about the similar thing with Korea. If Japan does not have some formally written agreement with New Zealand, we can keep the door open for importing from New Zealand to Japan, but when we export to New Zealand, there might be some disadvantageous conditions. So even if the economy turned around and improved, Japanese car sales may not recover. If people can get Chinese and Korean cars cheaper than Japanese cars because of the tax agreement, people who do not mind these cars might buy them instead of buying Japanese imports with high custom duties.

So I am hoping these top people, thinking about long-term effects, sit down and talk carefully about the benefit for the both countries.


★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.html
★ JPCTRADE Home page : http://jpctrade.com/
★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955