NEW DELHI: India and New Zealand have set a deadline of 60 days to wrap up discussions on their Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and a goal to grow bilateral trade 10-fold in the next 10 years. “I look forward to, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signing that agreement (FTA) in 60 days,” Prime Minister of New Zealand Christopher Luxon said at the India New Zealand Economic Forum meeting on Tuesday.
India and New Zealand on Sunday announced relaunch of talks FTA after a gap of a decade. Earlier, the negotiations on the FTA were held between 2010 and 2015 before they were abandoned. One major sticking point in the negotiations was New Zealand’s demand for greater access to the Indian dairy market.
India has also been reluctant to lower tariffs on meat and wine imports and remains reluctant on tariff concessions in agriculture, particularly in the dairy sector. It has kept out the dairy sector from all its FTAs in order to shield its small farmers.
New Zealand, however, is unwilling to give up on dairy since is the biggest farm sector export earner. In an interview to Radio New Zealand as reported by Bloomberg, Luxon said he understands India’s sensitivities but they aren’t a reason not to push for dairy’s inclusion in a free-trade deal.
“I just don’t want us to give up on dairy. We are going to try and find a way to make dairy work,” he said.
In his address at the economic forum meeting, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said both countries can easily navigate few areas where there are sensitivities or respect each others’ sensitivities given the different levels of development and prosperity in each country.
In the previous round of talks, a key issue for India was a demand for easier movement of skilled professionals and better access for its IT and services sector. India wanted New Zealand to grant work opportunities similar to those given to Australia and China, but New Zealand did not agree.
To address this issue, India and New Zealand on Monday also agreed to launch negotiations on an arrangement facilitating the mobility of professionals and skilled workers between the two countries while also addressing the issue of irregular migration.
At the meeting of the economic forum, Goyal also said that both countries should aim to grow bilateral trade tenfold in the next 10 years. India-New Zealand bilateral trade in 2023-24 was $ 1.54 billion with India’s exports at $ 538.3 billion and imports at $ 335.1 billion. In the April-January period of this financial year the bilateral trade stood at $ 1 billion.
“I feel incredibly optimistic about the future of both India and New Zealand. We have massive aspirations. I think we are well positioned, despite the challenges, to actually do exceptionally well for both of our countries in the years and the decades ahead,” Luxon added.
Source: The Financial Express
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