Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is a native of New Zealand and worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ before travelling to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
Oh dear, it must be keeping him up at night. Despite being worth over 20 billion dollars, Zuru billionaire Nick Mowbray gave an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking telling him that he’s being made to feel poor by the Trump tariffs.
Mowbray says “it’s hard to say we’re not worried” about the US administration’s “chaotic” policy decisions. “We’ll ship about two billion dollars worth of goods to the US this year. So, at that run rate, that makes our tariffs worth about three billion dollars at the moment.”
First, how was this interview all jacked up? Well, everyone knows everyone on this Moana-style island, which is why, it seems, all the good jobs go to the well connected. Of course, Mike Hosking’s wife, Kate Hawkesby, is the sister of the husband of the daughter of the second richest man in New Zealand, Graeme Hart. Got it?
So the family connection is that the Hoskings’ nephew is working for a guy called Nick Mowbray, the Zuru founder, in the United States. Now we wouldn’t want him being collateral damage in this “hysterical” (to quote Winston Peters) Trump tariff spat, would we? And have a Hart thrown onto the heap of young disenfranchised out-of-work Americans.
So back to solving the awful financial problem of Nick Mowbray’s three billion dollar tariff bill. Since Nick now lives in Auckland, how about relocating all your Chinese factories to NZ, in which case your tariff bill would drop from three billion dollars (145 per cent of two billion dollars) to 200 million dollars (10 per cent of two billion dollars), which is essentially small change. That way, our Kiwi expat friend Nick, you could save 2.8 billion dollars per annum, create amazing manufacturing jobs in Aotearoa, not to mention multi-billion levels of investment in capital which the country so desperately needs.
Or will you shaft NZ and keep your factories in China, as well as hold most of your investments overseas? And then whine to your mate Mike Hosking that it’s so unfair you’re having to pay the US government three billion dollars in tariffs on your Chinese (not NZ) exports? Just saying.
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
