NZ enters free trade negotiations with UAE
New Zealand will begin formal free trade negotiations with the United Arab Emirates, Trade Minister Todd McClay has announced.
McClay, speaking to The Post from Dubai, said he had agreed with UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi the two countries should conclude an agreement as quickly as possible.
“We’d like to see it finished during this year ... However, we’ve also got to make sure that everything is covered so it’s a quality agreement that we need,” McClay said.
New Zealand has been seeking a bi-lateral free trade deal with UAE alongside a deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain, which has been negotiated on and off since 2009.
UAE is a small market for New Zealand. Two-way trade between the countries was $1.17 billion, compared with $6b with the United Kingdom, or $20b with China. But exports of good and service to UAE grew by 17% in the year to September 2023, to $1.02b.
“It’s growing quite quickly. It’s sort of a market that that for tourism and other reasons is growing very, very fast,” McClay said.
“If you visit the big supermarkets and so on, you see products from all around the world, probably not as much from New Zealand as you would expect, given the size of it. And so the FTA will help level that a little bit.”
“The second thing that’s really important is it's become a bit of a hub. So products come in and they’re further processed or value-added to them here and then exported around the region and elsewhere.
“Our exporters have told us that it was pretty big opportunities there, and so they just want their framework of rules in a trade agreement that will just sort of help them with their investment.”
McClay said he had told his UAE counterpart New Zealand was extremely ambitious and wanted “one of the best deals that they have done”.
“It’s not going to be an easy agreement.
But I don’t think it’s going to be one of the most difficult that we do either. A lot of the trade is fairly complimentary.
“A lot of the things we would like to see significant tariff reduction, we’re not competing with them.”
McClay said he had also agreed with his counterpart in Saudi Arabia, a major player in the GCC, to revisit the prospective GCC deal, and officials from both countries would meet virtually in the coming months to do so.