APEC: NZ leads push to remove vaccine tariffs
APEC trade ministers are working on a plan to eliminate tariffs on vaccines, syringes, soap and face masks within the 21 nation bloc.
APEC trade ministers are working on a plan to eliminate tariffs on vaccines, syringes, soap and face masks within the 21 nation bloc, and ensure COVID jabs get the same fast-tracked treatment at borders as chilled food.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 2021 host, New Zealand, is leading the push to make pandemic-related goods tariff free, and has also proposed a new agreement to end fossil fuel subsidies by APEC nations, and remove tariffs on environmental goods and services.
APEC nations charge an average 6 per cent tariff on vaccines, 20.7 per cent tariff on syringes, 27 per cent on soap, and 8 per cent on medical masks.
“None of us knew that vaccines or syringes had these kinds of barriers in place,” New Zealand’s APEC organiser Vangelis Vitalis said.
“What we want is for APEC to be responsive to the crisis and for trade ministers to be able to say something meaningful and substantive about how we respond in a trade sense to this very serious pandemic.”
Vaccines are being held up for 3-9 days in customs, while perishable food is whisked through customs within six hours under the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Asia-Pacific nations.
New Zealand is confident of reaching an agreement on the COVID measures, but the proposal to end non-renewable energy subsidies will be much harder to achieve.
Trade Minister Dan Tehan said Australia would work with New Zealand to make COVID-related goods tariff free in APEC.
“We have already removed tariffs on medical supplies in response to COVID-19, so we also strongly support this initiative,” he said.
Mr Tehan said Australia also backed the removal of tariffs on environmental goods and services “as a priority”, but failed to back New Zealand’s call for an end to subsidies on fossil fuels.
The Morrison government announced a $2.5bn subsidy for domestic fuel refineries over the next decade, and hands $7.8bn a year to farmers and miners.
Mr Vitalis, a deputy secretary in New Zealand’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade, said it was hoped APEC trade ministers would reach agreement on the proposed measures at their June 5 meeting.
“To be very clear, APEC is not a free-trade agreement. But what we hope is ministers will say, ‘It is really important that our populations get vaccinated … and get access to the vaccine, and to the equipment that will deliver the vaccine to us.
“If we were trying to negotiate this for a free-trade agreement, we could potentially be doing this for years. This crisis needs to be dealt with now.”
He said the proposed agreement in accelerated clearance of vaccines would ensure COVID jabs were “green-laned” through customs, ensuring they could be administered more quickly to those in need of protection.
New Zealand is placing the COVID economic recovery at the centre of its APEC year agenda, encouraging trade and economic policies, encouraging policies to reduce friction at borders and making it easier for companies to do business.
It is holding all meetings virtually, including November’s leaders’ summit to be attended by Scott Morrison and other national leaders.
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