Recent address by MFAT Deputy Secretary Michael Green

Victoria University Institute for Links with Latin America (VILLA) Seminar on “Changing Cultures in Latin America”

Venue: Council Chamber, Level 2, Hunter Building, VUW, Kelburn Parade, Wellington

Date: Friday 26 September 2008

Thank you, Vice Chancellor Walsh and Professor Rabel, for your words of welcome and for the opportunity to participate in this seminar organised by Victoria University’s Institute for Links with Latin America.

In my turn I wish to welcome other seminar participants, especially those who have travelled here from Latin America. I am impressed with the high calibre of our presenters and with the wide array of interesting topics to be addressed today. I am also pleased to acknowledge the presence of Latin America experts from our own universities.

This second seminar under VILLA auspices is an excellent forum to highlight the growing connections between New Zealand and Latin America. It is pleasing to note the continued support of the six Latin American Ambassadors resident in Wellington.

I’ve been asked to talk about cultural interaction between New Zealand and Latin America. Cultural links are an important strand of any bilateral relationship. They go to the heart of the capacity for two countries to share interests and understandings. Without some sense of common outlook - without an effort to understand one another - it is very difficult to do business or engage on the higher political level.

As a diplomat I discovered Latin America rather late in my career. One of many features that I found attractive about it was the extraordinary cultural diversity and richness. Much of this is little known in New Zealand. From time to time we have had enticing glimpses of Latin American popular culture: bossa nova and tango are readily recognised as musical expressions of Latin America; a handful of movies - Black Orpheus, Like Water for Chocolate, The Buena Vista Social Club - have found audiences outside film festivals; and novels by Gabriel Garcia Marques, Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa and Isabel Allende enjoy quite wide readership in New Zealand. There is also a dim but gradually improving knowledge of Latin America’s pre-colonial civilisations and colonial cultural heritage, as more and more New Zealanders explore the region as tourists. But New Zealanders know a lot more about societies with which we have less in common culturally than we do with the countries of Latin America.

There are many reasons for this. They lie in New Zealand’s historical security pre-occupations with threats from the north; in the dominance until recently of first British and then US cultural models; and in the structure of New Zealand’s economy which, until as recently as the 1970s, was directed at providing primary products for the UK market, in direct competition with Latin American suppliers. Our minds were closed to the similarities between New Zealand and certain Latin American countries, and to the opportunities these created for constructive and deeper engagement with them.

Our first footholds in Latin America, the establishment of diplomatic missions in Chile and Peru in the early 1970s, were a response to the prospect of losing the UK markets on which our whole economy was based when the UK joined the European Community. The need to diversify our markets and our products led us to engage systematically, for the first time, with our Latin American neighbours. The results were, frankly, mixed. Trade and economic gains came more quickly in other regions. Without the fillip provided by deeper economic engagement, Latin America remained on the periphery of New Zealand’s foreign relations.

This began to change in 2000 with the launching of the Government’s Latin America Strategy, supported by a Latin America Strategy Fund. The strategy is a long-term framework for raising New Zealand’s profile in Latin America – and vice versa. Founded on an assessment that Latin America offers important opportunities for New Zealand, this “NZ Inc” strategy was devised to build New Zealand’s relations with Latin America across three pillars: political links; economic links; and people to people links.

I’m going to talk about the people to people links first. The Latin America Strategy Fund has been an excellent tool for supporting a variety of cultural links with Latin America. Here are some examples. In the past year, it has assisted the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir to attend festivals in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in July; our Embassy in Chile is about to launch a book newly translated into Spanish focusing on the remarkable 1983 journey of New Zealander Gerry Clark on a yacht around Antarctica, including travelling through the Chilean archipelago; rugby coaching materials have been donated to rugby clubs in Argentina and Uruguay; and a New Zealand filmmaker was helped to participate in Mexico’s short film festival in July. And the Fund has provided some support for this seminar.

The Latin America Strategy also supports the Prime Minister’s Fellowship. Under this programme, influential Latin Americans are invited to New Zealand to improve their understanding of New Zealand and to expand the range of New Zealand “advocates” in Latin America countries.

The most recent PM’s Fellow was Professor Eduardo Giannetti, an economist from Brazil. You may have heard him interviewed on Kim Hill’s programme on National Radio. He was very interested in New Zealand’s approach to sustainability, particularly the introduction of the emissions trading scheme, and he was a vigorous advocate for adoption by New Zealand of a flexi-fuel engine that can use either biofuel or petrol.

Earlier this year, we had a PM’s Fellow from Argentina, Professor Jorge Forteza, an academic who focused on New Zealand’s public sector reforms. He is now lecturing at the San Andres University in Buenos Aires, using New Zealand as a positive case study and encouraging his official and academic colleagues to look to New Zealand’s example.

Argentina is not the only country looking at the New Zealand public sector model.  Following their President’s visit to New Zealand last November, officials from Uruguay’s Planning and Budget Bureau have been in New Zealand to learn about our state sector policies, and Victoria University’s School of Government has participated in a recent follow-up seminar in Montevideo.

Promoting connections between our indigenous peoples is another interesting area.  The Latin America Strategy Fund has assisted a number of such exchanges.  In April this year it supported the visit of Lucas Sierra from Chile to look at New Zealand’s experience in addressing indigenous issues.  Since his return to Chile Mr Sierra has written about New Zealand’s experience in the Chilean media and uses his academic and think-tank connections to share what he learnt.

The unique Polynesian connection between New Zealand’s Maori and Chile’s Rapa Nui people has been a particular focus.  An exchange programme between students from Turakina Maori Girls College (Rangitikei) and Hato Paora College (Wanganui) and  Loranzo Baeza Vega College in Rapa Nui was established in 2004, initially supported by the Latin American Strategy Fund.  It proved so popular with the schools and communities involved that the exchange programme still continues with private funding.

A few years back, students from the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic visited Rapa Nui to study traditional fishing methods and to try to establish ancestral connections.  A Rapa Nui kapa haka group has participated in New Zealand’s Te Matatini Maori cultural festival. 

Following the visit of the CEO of Te Papa Tongarewa, Dr Seddon Bennington, to Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru in 2006, Te Papa continues to explore possibilities, particularly with a museum in Peru, to strengthen cultural exchanges.

A significant role in assisting, directly and indirectly, indigenous communities in Latin America has been played by NZAID’s Latin America Development Programme, which focuses on sustainable rural livelihoods.  Examples include NZAID’s support for the World Wildlife Fund in Chile which is working with the Mapu Lahual indigenous association on eco-tourism; and a project, working with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, to promote the use of traditional Andean food crops in Peru and Ecuador. 

Perhaps the most effective method of developing people to people links has been a series of Working Holiday Schemes with Latin American countries.  These have provided the chance for young people to work or study for up to one year in the host country.  New Zealand now has such Schemes with five of its Latin America partners – Argentina, Chile, Brazil (signed during the recent visit of Foreign Minister Amorim), Mexico and Uruguay. A sixth, with Peru, is currently being negotiated.  We hope that it will be ready for signature during the APEC Summit in Lima in November. 

 The interest in New Zealand that these schemes have generated is reflected in steady growth in the number of visitors from Latin America.  There were 30,160 visitors in the year to August 2008.   This was a 17% increase on previous year, and an increase of almost 10,000 during the last two years.  Though most are tourists, the growing communities of Latin Americans in New Zealand today mean that many visitors identify their purpose as meeting up with friends and family. 

Chile and Brazil are our largest tourism markets in the region.  I understand that there is a shared interest in adventure tourism activities.  This common interest in adventure tourism and eco-tourism has opened up another strand of cooperation between New Zealand and Latin America.  In March this year, with the support of the Latin America Strategy Fund, we invited a group of journalists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay to focus on adventure and eco-tourism in New Zealand.  The resulting media coverage in these countries, highlighting New Zealand tourism opportunities, has been impressive.  Tourism NZ is also organising a mission of adventure tourism enterprises to Brazil next April, and I understand that bungy jumping pioneer A.J. Hackett will be there too. 

Under the new Conservation cooperation Arrangement with Brazil (also signed during Foreign Minister Amorim’s visit), an important element of potential collaboration will be the management of tourism in protected areas such as national parks. 

Academic and education links with Latin America are expanding.  Not only are New Zealand institutions focusing on Latin American studies – notably VILLA and also its sister, the Centre for Latin American Studies at Auckland University – but there is an increasing demand for Spanish (and also Portuguese) language training. 

To help build up education institutional links with counterparts in Latin America, and to develop an education policy dialogue, the Ministry of Education appointed an Education Counsellor to our Embassy in Santiago with a mandate covering South America.  The Ministry of Education has also developed its own Latin America strategy to promote New Zealand’s education links with the region.

In 2007, just over 3,500 students from Latin America studied in New Zealand.  This is only 3.8% of total foreign students in New Zealand but the numbers are growing rapidly.  Brazil, for example, is now our ninth largest market globally for education services, with student numbers up 30% over the previous year.  There is a particular focus on English language training but agricultural vocational training is also a feature of education cooperation.

We hope to see growth in the number of students from Chile, after the signing of a Scholarships Arrangement during Foreign Minister Foxley’s visit to New Zealand in late July.  Up to 300 students from Chile are expected to begin studies in New Zealand next year with the support of Chile’s Bicentennial Fund for Human Capital Development. 

Linked to education cooperation is the potential to expand our research, science and technology links with Latin America.  A number of New Zealand’s Crown Research Institutes are already active in Latin America.  Agricultural research is a particular interest, involving both AgResearch and HortResearch. 

And, reflecting our common interests in addressing climate change, we were pleased to have a full turn out from our Latin America partners at the workshop in Montevideo in July of the Livestock Emissions Abatement Research Network (LEARN) which was organized by New Zealand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Uruguay Government. 

Having given a taste of the breadth and diversity of the people to people links between New Zealand and Latin America, I’ll now look briefly at the other two pillars of the Government’s Latin America Strategy – political and economic links.

Political links with Latin America continue to grow.  At last year’s VILLA seminar, the Prime Minister listed a number of high level visitors from the region to New Zealand.  That trend has continued in the year since then. 

Last November, Uruguay’s President Vazquez paid a visit to New Zealand, the first visit by a Uruguayan President.  Agreements were reached to expand the Working Holiday Scheme and to hold regular foreign ministry consultations, helping to boost the relationship to a new level.  This enhanced political relationship is underpinned by growing commercial agri-business linkages, particularly through PGG Wrightson’s significant investment in dairy farming using New Zealand farm and pasture management techniques.  This builds on PGG Wrightson’s existing investment in Uruguay’s seed industry.  And it follows a very long association between New Zealand and Uruguay in agricultural development, including the fact that the Corriedale sheep – bred to suit New Zealand conditions – has dominated Uruguay’s sheep farms since the 1920s. 

More recently, we have received the Foreign Ministers of Chile and Brazil.  I’ve already mentioned the conclusion during Minister Foxley’s visit of a Scholarships Arrangement, and I know that this University is very keen to welcome scholarship students from Chile next year. 

During Minister Amorim’s visit, in addition to signing a Working Holiday agreement and a Conservation Cooperation Arrangement, it was announced that New Zealand will be raising the level of its representation in Brazil by appointing a Consul-General from MFAT to lead the Sao Paulo office, previously headed by NZTE. 

There was a good exchange of views with Minister Amorim on international issues. The state of the WTO negotiations was a particular focus because of his leadership role in that process.  Our similar perspectives on many multilateral issues led us to conclude that we should talk to Brazil more often; to that end, Ministers agreed to schedule more regular foreign ministry talks.

Peru’s hosting of APEC in 2008 has provided valuable opportunities to enhance bilateral interaction.   Through the NZAID programme New Zealand had earlier provided English Language training at this University for a group of Peruvian APEC officials.  This year the Minister of Trade, Hon Phil Goff, the Minister of Education, Hon Chris Carter, and the CEO of the Ministry of Tourism have all travelled to Peru to attend APEC meetings.  These visits have included meetings with Peruvian Ministers and senior officials to consider ways to develop our bilateral relationship further.

From Mexico, we are about to welcome the Governor of the state of Jalisco, which has the third largest economy of Mexico’s states and is an important agricultural producer.  The Governor is very keen to learn about the scope for cooperation in the agriculture sector.  The state of Jalisco is already working with HortResearch on the development of a new blueberry variety for cultivation in the state. 

Visits from New Zealand to Latin America included Minister of Conservation Steve Chadwick’s visit to Chile for the International Whaling Commission meeting in June.  Arising from this visit are possibilities for New Zealand and Chile to cooperate on policies for marine protected areas.  Minister Chadwick participated in a ceremony establishing Chile’s EEZ as a whale sanctuary, and she agreed that New Zealand and Chile would work together on a project to help survey Chile’s dolphins, noting that New Zealand’s rare Hectors’ dolphins are closely related to the Chilean species.  

Turning now to the economic links with Latin America, one of the most significant achievements has been the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement – known as P4 – with Chile, Brunei and Singapore.  This is a model free trade agreement.  It commits its members to the elimination of tariffs on all goods and adopts a high-quality approach to trade in services.  It also covers labour and environment.  It is a comprehensive agreement which bridges the Asia-Pacific region. 

The news this week that the US would like to enter into comprehensive negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Agreement was welcomed by New Zealand and all its P4 partners.  US involvement is likely to stimulate more open trade within the Asia-Pacific region, leading to greater Asia-Pacific economic integration.  Peru has already expressed interest in joining the negotiations and there may be interest from other Latin American countries.  An expanded Trans-Pacific agreement is aligned with the APEC goal of promoting free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region.  These latest developments should provide impetus for leaders’ discussions on APEC’s Free trade Area for the Asia Pacific at the APEC Summit in Peru during November. 

We are also keen to work with Mexico on a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement.  A joint New Zealand-Mexico study identified significant potential for growth in the two-way trade and economic relationship, emphasising the complementarity of two economies.  Mexico is New Zealand’s 13th largest export market, and our 4th largest for dairy products, particularly milk powder.  In the other direction, New Zealand is a key market for Mexico’s Corona beer, and also imports a range of electrical equipment and machinery. 

The potential for economic cooperation was underlined by the recent visit of a large business delegation led by the head of Mexico’s national trade promotion organization (ProMexico) which investigated opportunities for Mexican businesses in New Zealand, particularly in the agri-business sector.  The visit from the state of Jalisco provides another opportunity to build a Mexican business constituency in favour of a mutually beneficial, closer economic partnership with New Zealand. 

But our economic relationships with Latin America countries are not just about the export of primary products, particularly milk powder, although countries like Mexico and Venezuela remain strong markets for them.  Increasingly, New Zealand’s economic engagement with Latin America – particularly Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay – is focused on investment and joint ventures. 

Minister of Trade Phil Goff led a mission to these countries this time last year to promote NZTE’s food value chain project.  This is designed to develop complementary economic relationships across the food and beverage, agritechnology, specialised education, and biotech sectors.  It underlines New Zealand’s wish to be a partner with Latin America economies in a deeper and more integrated way.  

New Zealand is now seriously engaged in building substantive and dynamic relationships, at all levels, with the countries of Latin America.  Under the Government’s Latin America Strategy we have dedicated resources to developing strategic partnerships with the region.  This reflects the importance of our shared values, which include significant cultural elements; our shared interests in a globalised world; and important, mutually beneficial economic opportunities.  Both sides have good reasons to sustain these efforts into the future.

Thank you.

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