- 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
Photo: NZ Free Trade Watch / Facebook
1-Nov-2010
NZ Herald
New Zealand and Russia have had basic initial talks about a possible free trade agreement (FTA), Prime Minister John Key says.
11-Oct-2010
ANI
Raga D’silva, deputy chairman of the India New Zealand Business Council, has warned that the TVNZ presenter Paul Henry’s ’racist’ comments against New Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit could have a negative impact on negotiations for a free trade agreement between both the countries.
4-Jul-2010
Trade will be top of the agenda when Prime Minister John Key meets with President Lee Myung-bak and Prime Minister Chung Un-chan in Korea later today.
17-Jun-2010
New Zealand should be looking to become the food bowl of Asia and use free trade agreements to do it, according to financial services firm KPMG.
1-Jun-2010
Bloomberg
New Zealand, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, agreed to begin work on a free trade accord with Russia, the world’s largest market for butter and cheese. Any such deal will include Belarus and Kazakstan, according to NZ trade minister Tim Groser.
17-May-2010
Radio NZ
Meat & Wool New Zealand is anxious to see a free trade agreement with South Korea completed as soon as possible so that this country’s beef trade can compete on an equal footing there.
29-Mar-2010
NZ Herald
New Zealand and Hong Kong will today sign a closer economic partnership(CEP) agreement, building on the free trade agreement with China.
23-Mar-2010
Trade Minister Tim Groser will sign a free trade agreement with Hong Kong when he visits there on Monday.
23-Feb-2010
NZ Herald
If New Zealand wants a free trade agreement with the European Union it will first have to explain what is in it for Europe, a senior EU trade official says.
8-Feb-2010
Scoop
New Zealand journalist Gordon Campbell on why free trade with the US is more Monty Python than Holy Grail
Links
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Government of NZ’ page on FTAs
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Māori collective that aims to advance and protect Māori interests in the trade space.
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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.