- Negotiations
New Zealand is a party to a number of completed free trade and investment agreements. These are: the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Agreement (1983); the New Zealand-Singapore Closer Economic Partnership (2001); the New Zealand-Thailand Closer Economic Partnership (2005); the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership or P4 (2005); the New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement (2008), the Australia-ASEAN-New Zealand free trade agreement (2009), the New Zealand-Malaysia FTA (2009),an FTA with the GCC, (2009) and the New Zealand-Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership (2010).
A New Zealand-India deal has been mooted. New Zealand’s government has indicated that it wants FTAs with Korea and Taiwan
While talk of a US-New Zealand FTA was hotly resisted and never got off the ground, partly because of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy, the expansion of what was initially called the P4 agreement to include the US (the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement) threatens to bring important changes to New Zealand policies.
New Zealand has also signed a number of IPPAs (bilateral investment treaties) with Chile, Argentina, Hong Kong, China and others.
last update: May 2012
16-Jan-2017
Indian Newslink
Trade Minister Todd McClay will visit Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to press for a conclusion to the free trade negotiations between New Zealand and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
16-Jan-2017
Tax-news
Cross-border tariffs between New Zealand and Korea were scaled back further with the second installment of tax cuts under their free trade agreement.
28-Nov-2016
Stuff
In essence, trade agreements are not about tariffs and goods anymore but about investment and services.
17-Oct-2016
Business Desk
Prime Minister John Key will lead a trade delegation to India next week, saying the pursuit of a trade agreement with the highly protected agricultural giant is "the primary reason we’re going" but playing down the likelihood of early progress
29-Sep-2016
Reuters
New Zealand and the Gulf Cooperation Council will work to get a stalled free trade pact back on track after trade ministers from the Pacific nation and Saudi Arabia agreed to deepen trade ties.
19-Feb-2016
Otago
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is defending a controversial sheep farm in Saudi Arabia, saying that the project has helped nudge New Zealand closer to a free trade deal with the Gulf states.
16-Nov-2015
Indmin
The free trade agreement currently in discussion could benefit a number of mineral producers in New Zealand.
29-Sep-2015
Tax News
New Zealand’s Parliament approved the Tariff (Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the Republic of Korea) Amendment Bill on September 24, 2015.
6-Jul-2015
Radio New Zealand
With the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement still a work in progress, New Zealand negotiators have their eye on the next target as well — a free trade deal with the European Union.
28-May-2015
Xinhua
New Zealand’s Auditor General has been asked to investigate government spending of 11 million NZ dollars (US$7.96m) on a sheep farm in Saudi Arabia in what has been labeled a bribe to secure a free trade agreement with the Arab Gulf states.
Links
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Government of NZ’ page on FTAs
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The OUR WORLD IS NOT FOR SALE campaign was formed around building the protests at the September 2007 US-NZ Partnership Forum, the global justice campaign aims to build public support and organisation against the signing of any form of free trade agreement between the United States and New Zealand.
bilaterals.org team, Jan 2021