The Government is confident the contaminated infant formula scandal will not hurt the country’s reputation in the long term.
However, Prime Minister John Key says the damage to
the country’s reputation and exports would depend on how long it takes
to provide assurances to those importing potentially contaminated
products that they are safe to consume.
"In the medium to long term we can regroup. We’ve
got a good international reputation. In the short term it does damage
New Zealand and Fonterra."
Until the issue is sorted out, the country will "have to weather that storm", he says.
"The real test will be what confidence do
international consumers, and indeed domestic consumers, have after this
issue is resolved. The more confidence we can give them [...] the sooner
we can get back to normality."
Trade Minister Tim Groser says it is “realistic” the
country will take a hit from the incident, but the damage to New
Zealand’s reputation would depend on the Government’s response.
"Long term it depends on
the relationships we've got, how quickly we respond and how
professionally we respond. It would be naive to think we’re going to get
away without a bloody nose, but let’s hope the damage is limited to
that."
Mr Groser says China will put a testing
regime in place for other dairy products not affected by the tainted
whey protein, but was not sure how they will be tested. The Chinese
response to the issue is "measured", he says.
"Frankly, if you were in their situation, wouldn’t you do the same thing?"
The situation is fluid, and though import bans in some countries have not been implemented, they had been considered, he says.
"We
should all be quite adult about this and quite realistic. The tide is
going out and there will be a little bit of time before people are
prepared to scale some of those restrictions back."
Mr
Key says once the issue has been resolved, there can be at least two
inquiries into the incident. These would include the time it took for
Fonterra to notify the Government about the contaminated product and the
process the company took to bring the issue into the public domain.
A second would reflect on how the Government responded to the incident.
3 News
Online Reporter
Monday 05 Aug 2013 6:05p.m.
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