Engaging with the world: John Allen suggests that New Zealand needs to be realistic about its position and to take risks to achieve its goals.

• Author: Allen, John

I have positive aspirations for our country. I know that it can be done. And I know in fact, like most New Zealanders, that it is going to be easy. I know because the media and the sound bytes keep reminding us that we are close to--or at least within ten hours' flight--of a country called China. And we know as a consequence of that--because China needs food and we are allegedly the world best producers of food--that our future is assured.

And it is particularly assured because the ministry that I lead, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has successfully negotiated a vast array of free trade agreements with the piece of geography called Asia. Is it any wonder that New Zealanders have this sense that their future is assured and they can be confident of that future because we are close to Asia. Why? Because there are 3.5 billion people in Asia and they are all as hungry as hell and we produce the food they want. This is a message that we hear time and time and time again. And, of course, it creates the impression in this country that we as a nation 'punch above our weight'.

I know that we have got a few people with a good right hook as individuals, but this triumphalist message is hugely dangerous. I hear too often the claim that we punch above our weight in world trade, especially when I see the complacency of New Zealand business, the complacency of the New Zealand bureaucracy, the complacency of New Zealand society faced with the challenges that exist in the world. It is dangerous when we start believing the PR promoted about this country that I know is wrong.

If we are going to move into the value-added space rather than simply being a commodity provider, if we are going to actually seize the opportunity that our international position, our farm management, our history can create for us, if we are actually going to get that excellent white asparagus return across the horticultural sector and across the rest of our agriculture, aquaculture, other cultures where we have competitive advantage, we have got to stop believing the rhetoric. We have got to start understanding markets, and we have got to start behaving differently.

Access to markets matters--and so does information. Partnerships with people in markets, distribution, and production all make a difference. Margins are made or destroyed as a consequence of decisions that are made around all of those things.

Unwarranted view

Those who have the rosy view of Asia that it is going to continue to rise and must necessarily succeed do not, in my view, understand the risks that are inherent in the Asian market. There is, for example, the risk that we might negotiate world-class free trade agreements and then New Zealand business does not turn up. Frankly there is no point in concluding a magnificent legal document if business does not want it and business does not use it. The reason for negotiating those documents is simply to drive trade and economic profitability for this country. That is the purpose of the free trade agreement process. And if...