Source: New Zealand Government
Minister for Trade and Investment Todd McClay left yesterday to visit China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Singapore and Australia to strengthen trade relationships and promote New Zealand’s interests on the world stage.
In China he will lead a trade mission for the final days of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) – the world’s largest – and will promote New Zealand’s unique ‘Grass-Fed’ standard. This will be followed by a visit to Beijing for political discussions.
This visit reflects the importance New Zealand places on our trade and economic relationship with China. China is our largest trading partner, with two-way trade exceeding the $40 billion mark in the year ending June 2025.
The Minister will then travel to the UAE for meetings, following the entry into force of the New Zealand-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in August.
“Our trade agreement with the UAE provides exporters with greater options and better access into this growing market,” Mr McClay says.
Mr McClay will then travel to India to hold Ministerial trade negotiations with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi. This follows Minister Goyal’s visit to New Zealand this week.
Whilst in India Mr McClay will also lead a forestry and wood processing trade mission and speak at the trade Partnership Summit, an annual global conference that brings together world leaders, policymakers, and industry executives, hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
“This will be my sixth visit and reaffirms our commitment to negotiating a high-quality trade agreement with India opening up access to their 1.4 billion consumers during this term of Parliament,” Mr McClay says.
He will then travel to Singapore as a founding member to join 12 other countries for the first in-person Ministerial meeting of the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership (FIT-P).
Mr McClay says this represents a real opportunity for New Zealand to work with like-minded economies to reduce costs and give greater certainty to kiwi exporters through simplified trade rules.
In Australia Mr McClay will attend the annual Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) ministerial meeting and the first CPTPP- EU and CPTPP- ASEAN Dialogues.
“The partnership represents more than 15 percent of global GDP and includes some of the world’s most dynamic economies,” Mr McClay says.
Mr McClay says all these visits are part of the Government’s plan to double the value of exports over 10 years, creating jobs and increasing incomes for all New Zealanders.
