The 1990s are destined to be a decade of profound and potentially beneficial change in the New Zealand economy.

The process of structural reform is well advanced and is laying the foundations for a significant and sustained reversal of our inferior economic performance. Enhancing competition, reducing real tax burdens, removing price distortions and restoring the role of incentives and choice in business and private decision making all have been key factors in getting New Zealand back on a path of economic growth and rising living standards.

Competition, clear price signals and choice are just as important to agricultural producers and their associated industries as they are to the economy as a whole. Within the rural sector, an array of past subsidies and support measures, which proved to be very distortionary and destructive, have been removed. The process has been painful for many, but necessary and beneficial.

However, the reforms of the past decade have impacted only slightly on the regulations that affect the export of agricultural products. As the Porter study on New Zealand's international competitiveness noted, the present controls apply to a large fraction of our total exports. There has been no detailed and conclusive examination of whether they still represent the best approach to these important economic activities.