NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement falls short on Te Tiriti
Ngā Toki Whakarururanga | July 2023
NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement falls short on Te Tiriti
On 9 July, an FTA between Aotearoa and the European Union was signed. As part of our mandate, we prepared a Te Tiriti o Waitangi assessment of the FTA. We found that:
“The Crown continues to exceed its authority as kāwanatanga in the negotiation of trade agreements and deny Māori the right to exercise our rangatiratanga in the process, the content and the implementation of this FTA. Despite some improvements over previous agreements, the NZ EU FTA does not promote and protect the rights, interests, duties and responsibilities of Māori in a Te Tiriti-compliant manner and offers minimal, if any, concrete economic benefits to Māori businesses and workers.”
Co-convenor Pita Tipene welcomed moves by the Crown, and trade officials, to start taking their obligations to Māori more seriously. “But we found they still have a long way to go to ensure the trade and trade related policy space delivers what was promised in Te Tiriti.”
