One of many headlines calling the 15 percent tariff rate imposed by the US 'a surprise'. Photo: The Post
"If the name of New Zealand is seriously so threatened, why didn't New Zealand First introduce this bill 12 months ago? Why not six years ago? Why not negotiate it into the coalition agreement when they formed a government?" Jack Tame asked on his Newstalk ZB show last weekend.
He was talking about the New Zealand (Name of State) Bill freshly proposed by NZ First MP Andy Foster, which would legislate New Zealand as the official name of the country.
"Could it possibly be that a few hours before ... Australia and the UK achieved lower trade tariffs with the United States, while our government's top officials were apparently surprised to learn that our tariff had been increased?" he asked.
Party leader Winston Peters didn't like it.
On social media, he pointed out that on the same show five years ago, Jack Tame had backed 'Aotearoa New Zealand' as the official name for our nation.
In a long interview about the Bill on the alternative news platform The Platform, Peters said he was delighted his "counter-attack" on Jack Tame was getting good online engagement.
The hike in US trade tariffs didn't come up until Peters himself mentioned it at the very end.
"Before you go, you know, we've got this thing with the United States and everybody's alarmed. I've seen all the headlines on Radio New Zealand and all the newspapers today. We'll turn this thing around. You watch," the foreign minister said.
Since 5 April, US importers of New Zealand products have been paying a 10 percent tariff on all goods - and 25 percent on steel and aluminium.
While Tame said the 15 percent tariff the US confirmed late last week seemed to be a surprise to our government and trade officials, the media seemed surprised too.
Many news stories - and many headlines - called it a 'surprise' rise.
But ahead of that, Trade Minister Todd McClay himself said the tariff could rise to 15 percent.
At a media conference earlier, President Trump himself told reporters that the universal tariff could increase to 15 or 20 percent for countries that had not struck deals with the US.
Todd McClay also told reporters last week, if the tariff rate goes to 15 percent our exporters have already adjusted and will be able to deal with it.
If so, they adjusted a bit better than the surprised media this past week.
On Newstalk ZB, Mike Hosking told his listeners the lower rate charged across the Tasman was the real shock.
"Australia can land their beef and their wine at 10 percent, we land ours at 15," he complained.
But to those surprised by that, Scoop's Gordon Campbell said they shouldn't have been.
"We sell them more than they buy from us. In Trumpland, any country that runs a trade surplus with the US is a bad country that is ripping the US off. How bad have we been? Pretty bad, in Trumpian terms,"
New Zealand is a victim of its own export success, Gordon Campbell said - a bit like butter buyers in our duopolistic supermarkets.
Trade Minister Todd McClay also confirmed that 15 percent was no surprise on NZME's rural show The Country.
"If we had run a trade deficit with the US like Australia, would we have got 10 percent?," host Jamie McKay asked McClay on Wednesday, in Bangkok en route to Washington to plead our case.
"It is as simple as that," the trade minister replied, confirming he had been told as much previously by US trade representative Jamieson Greer.
"He said it didn't matter if you had camped out here in Washington, if you'd had a trade deal or you're negotiating one. For any country that had a trade surplus against the US last year - it is 15 percent or more," McClay said.
Todd MaClay dodged the next question, about whether we would agree to buy more stuff from the US to reduce our trade deficit.
This week McClay and columnist Gordon Campbell both pointed out that the trade surplus has in previous years been flipped by one-off purchases of big-ticket items like aircraft.
The deal Trump struck with the EU earlier this month included billions of dollars-worth of energy and military equipment.
Many people in many industries are now watching this space, including the media - surely not so surprised by now.
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