The European Union and New Zealand have agreed on a joint Free Trade Agreement (FTA). According to estimates, trade could increase by around 30 percent. The EU is currently already New Zealand’s third-largest trading partner. In addition to consumers and trading companies, agriculture is also expected to benefit.
“Our EU-NZ FTA is expected to increase the value of New Zealand’s exports to the EU by up to $1.8 billion per year from 2035. For comparison, that’s more lucrative than the benefits derived from our recent UK FTA,” New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern commented. “This is the fifth Free Trade Agreement the government has concluded in the past five years and sits alongside upgrades to our existing agreements with Singapore and China. The increase in market access we’ve negotiated means 73.5 percent of our global exports are now covered by an FTA, up from only around 50 percent when we took office.”
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that tariffs would be abolished, but that specialties from EU regions, for example, would continue to be protected. Before the agreement can come into force, the EU countries and the EU Parliament, among others, must still give the green light.
