An excellent FTA

Todd McClay announced:

New Zealand and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have concluded negotiations on a trade agreement that will open up significant opportunities for New Zealand exporters in the Gulf region, Minister for Trade and Agriculture Todd McClay announced from Doha today.

Today’s announcement follows significant reengagement with the GCC following meetings with GCC Ministers at the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Abu Dhabi in February of this year and delivers on an 18 year-long ambition for New Zealand to agree this high-quality trade deal in the Middle East.

“This is the highest quality deal the GCC has done to date and its first with a major agricultural exporter,” Mr McClay said.

“It delivers duty free access for 99 per cent of New Zealand’s exports over 10 years and when combined with our recently concluded NZ-UAE CEPA, 51 per cent of our exports to the region will be tariff-free from day one.

New Zealand and GCC trade is worth over $3 billion annually, with New Zealand exporting $2.6 billion in the year to June 2024. This includes $1.8 billion of dairy, $260 million of red meat, $72 million of horticulture and $70 million of travel and tourism services.

This is a great deal. To get 99% of exports tariff free over time is what you want, and we have been trying for 18 years got get an FTA here.

Our history of FTAs is:

• Australia 1983
• Singapore 2001
• Thailand 2005
• TPSEP
• China 2008
• Malaysia 2009
• ASEAn 2009
• Hong Kong 2011
• Taiwan 2013
• South Korea 2015
• TPP 2018
• PACER 2020
• RCEO 2022
• UK 2023
• ACCTS 2024
• EU 2024
• UAE 2024
• GCC 2024

Good to have so many agreements in place, but we may take a big hit next year as Trump has pledged a 20% tariff on all exports to the US which would cost us US$1.6 billion a year, plus a likely drop in export volumes.

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