Native Notes

The Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and China (NZ-China FTA) was signed on the 7th of April 2008 in Beijing, bringing to the end a negotiation process that spanned fifteen rounds over three years. New Zealand is the first developed country to negotiate a free trade agreement with China.

Securing preferential access to China’s economy has the potential to deliver significant gains to New Zealand exporters. It is the fastest growing major economy, currently growing at 9.5 percent per annum. China is New Zealand’s fourth largest trading partner, taking over $1.6 billion of New Zealand’s merchandise exports and over $1 billion of services. China’s middle class is now estimated to be more than 100 million people and growing - which will fuel the demand for New Zealand’s agricultural products. Gains to New Zealand’s manufacturers and services operators are also anticipated.

However, acclaim for the NZ-China FTA is not universal. According to Aroha Mead, Maori Business Senior Lecturer at Victoria University and a former senior fellow of the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management, Maori artists should be wary of the free trade agreement with China because they are about to be swamped by mass production. She says that despite recent gains in protecting intellectual property, there is huge risk inherent in the deal. Maori cultural products are at a real risk of getting swamped. She also believes that there is the chance that the “toi iho” trademark developed by the government agency, Creative New Zealand, to protect quality Maori arts and crafts would become devalued.

Because the creative Maori sector is a relatively new industry, no firm figures exist about its value to the economy. But Garry Nicholas, the general manager of Toi Maori, which promotes artists and their work, said it was likely to be significant - in 2003, during a week-long exhibition a Canadian gallery sold $1 million of Maori art. It now accounts for 22 per cent of that gallery’s business. While there were relevant concerns about intellectual property rights, he said, Toi Maori had developed strategies to enforce copyright.

My sense is that Maori artists who are producing high-quality and therefore high-value works of art will not be vulnerable to Chinese piracy. I think Ms. Mead’s concerns are well founded but I think the real risk lies in the misappropriation of Maori motifs and design elements for mass-produced crafts, clothing and household items such as blankets, rugs, and the ubiquitous mugs. I would think companies like Kia Kaha are probably the most vulnerable to Chinese piracy.  And I don’t see Aotearoa as the only market for these goods.