Flawed Law Leaves Natural Health Products' Future On A Knife Edge

The future of New Zealand’s natural health products sector is on a knife edge, with the government progressing its flawed Therapeutic Products Bill and ignoring amendments which would make the legislation fit for purpose and unlock huge economic and export growth opportunities, Natural Health Products New Zealand says.

Natural Health Products NZ represents around 80% of the natural health products sector, including small, medium and large manufacturers, distributors and suppliers.

"The natural health product sector urgently needs regulatory reform to unlock huge export opportunities so we can compete on the world stage taking our primary produce from volume to value," Natural Health Products NZ Government Affairs Director Samantha Gray said.

Natural Health Products New Zealand cannot support the Bill in its current state, Samantha Gray said. While it makes some important improvements to the current regulatory regime, such as enabling exports and evidence-based health benefit claims, it also imposes a level of unworkable bureaucracy including requiring the individual authorisation of all products on the market, including those that have been sold safely for decades. This is in contrast to a product notification system, which is in place in many of our trading partners and is regarded as international best practice.

"A new regulator tasked with individually assessing 20,000 different natural health products through a bureaucratic authorisation and assessment scheme is a red tape nightmare that will create untenable delays and costs for industry."The stakes are high, Samantha Gray said.

"The sector contributes around $2.3 billion to the New Zealand economy annually, and our lack of appropriate regulation is costing around NZ $500 million per year in lost exports. If the Bill is not amended adequately, or if the regulatory reform process is further delayed and restarted yet again, we will see a significant loss of existing manufacturing capability and capacity and jobs."

"Consultation from the Government has been poor, and we do not believe our concerns have been taken seriously. The Bill needs to be amended urgently or it risks causing significant economic harm to our industry, in turn costing jobs and exports for New Zealand at a time when we need it most."

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