India-New Zealand FTA is ‘an expression of trust’, NZ High Commissioner Patrick John Rata says

As India and New Zealand prepare to bring their free trade agreement into force on 20 October, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India, Patrick John Rata, has framed the pact as more than a tariff deal: it is, he says, “an expression of trust between our two countries.”

Speaking to WION's Sidhant Sibal after both sides completed ratification, Rata called the agreement “balanced, ambitious, and a once-in-a-generation agreement that’s going to [deliver] real benefits [to] both our countries.”

He placed the FTA, in the context of growing ties between the 2 countries: prime ministerial visits in both directions, the elevation of relations to a strategic partnership, and a run of new memorandums of understanding.

“This is a significant, substantial agreement,” he said. From day one, Indian exporters will send goods to New Zealand duty-free. New Zealand, in turn, will see more than half of its products enter India tariff-free on entry into force, with that share rising over time to “somewhere around 82 per cent.” Wool, forestry and wood products, horticulture, kiwifruit, lamb and wine are among the items Wellington hopes will find a larger Indian market.

“We hope that through the FTA, more Indian consumers will start to enjoy New Zealand kiwifruit, New Zealand lamb and New Zealand wine", High Commissioer said.

Rata insisted lowering of tariffs is only part of the picture. “The reduction of tariffs [is] important, but the opportunities that are going to be created for collaboration and cooperation between our two countries are also substantial and need to be highlighted as well.”

New Zealand has committed to promote US$20 billion of private-sector investment into India over 15 years. India will create a New Zealand investment desk to help identify projects. Agriculture and horticulture cooperation is written into the deal, even though India has kept dairy off the table.

“New Zealand has significant advanced technologies and farming knowledge and practices that we hope can be helpful,” Rata said, pointing also to a separate memorandum on dairying and animal husbandry concluded during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit.

On services and people-to-people links, he highlighted education, tourism, temporary work for skilled professionals, including musicians, yoga experts and cooks, and a working-holiday scheme. Temporary employment numbers, he said, were “somewhere in the vicinity of 1,600 per year,” with final details still to come. “It’s going to be another boost to our efforts to strengthen the people linkages between our two countries.”

The timing, he argued, mattered. Global trade is under strain. Diversification is the order of the day. “Trade agreements are about trust,” Rata said. “This agreement is an expression of trust between our two countries. Trust in the vision of close economic relationships between us going forward, and it’s an opportunity that we’ve created for each other at a time when the global economic situation is more unsettled than perhaps it has been in the past.”

The High Commission and New Zealand’s trade office in Mumbai will now try to turn that trust into more business engagements. The agreement, High Commissioner Rata pointed, only creates “better conditions.”