{"id":195987,"date":"2025-12-22T07:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T07:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/195987\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T07:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T07:02:07","slug":"nz-first-says-it-will-not-support-legislation-for-trade-deal-with-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/195987\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ First says it will not support legislation for trade deal with India"},"content":{"rendered":"

He said the deal\u2019s dairy access was bad and also criticised the visa access. It is not the first time Peters has deployed this tactic. During the Clark Government, in which Peters also served as foreign minister, Peters opposed Trade Minister Phil Goff\u2019s trade deal with China. He told the Herald earlier this year he stands by that criticism.<\/a><\/p>\n

The deal will be signed some time next year and examined by Parliament, implementation legislation would likely not be passed until after the election, meaning the deal could become a campaign issue. <\/p>\n

\"WinstonWinston Peters says he won’t be supporting the deal when it comes to Parliament. Photo \/ File<\/p>\n

The rest of the Government says the deal gives the best access of any Indian free trade deal (FTA), with recent Australian and United Kingdom deals including lower access.<\/p>\n

The deal was finalised earlier this month but had to wait for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to return to the country last week to hold a special Cabinet meeting to agree the deal. <\/a><\/p>\n

Trade Minister Todd McClay said the deal was \u201chistoric\u201d and puts New Zealand exporters on\u202fan\u202fequal or better footing\u202fto competitors\u202facross a range of sectors,\u202fand opens\u202fthe door to India\u2019s rapidly expanding middle class. <\/p>\n

Almost 57% of exports are duty-free from day one of the deal coming into force, increasing to 82% once it is fully implemented. The remaining 13% are \u201csubject to sharp tariff cuts\u201d, the Government says. <\/p>\n

However, there are questions with how well the deal will land with the dairy sector. India is notoriously protective of its domestic dairy sector and the deal has not managed to significantly increase access to New Zealand dairy exports. <\/p>\n

This deal liberalises access in some areas: dairy that is imported in order to be re-exported gets in tariff free under this deal; infant formula will see the current 33% tariff eliminated over seven years. <\/p>\n

\"DairyDairy access to India is not significantly increased. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Some of New Zealand\u2019s higher value dairy exports, worth about US$15,000-$16,000 ($26,000\u2013$28,000) a tonne would see tariffs reduced.<\/p>\n

However, there is no change to some of the cheaper milk powder exports that New Zealand excels at, which tends to be priced at US$3000-$4000 ($5200\u2013$6900) a tonne, which faces such high tariffs that it makes New Zealand milk products uncompetitive in India. <\/p>\n

The deal includes a provision that means if India concludes a deal that offers better dairy access to a comparable economy, New Zealand can ask for the dairy access to be renegotiated. <\/p>\n

The Government has conceded greater visa access to India, something to which NZ First had been resistant. <\/p>\n

New Zealand will offer three-year visas to occupations on tiers one and two of the green list of skill shortages. <\/p>\n

The Government will offer 1667 visas a year, which will be non-renewable and not offer a right to remain. <\/p>\n

The Government will also expand the post-study work rights of some visas. <\/p>\n

Getting a trade deal with India over the line this Parliamentary term was a key commitment of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on the campaign trail in 2023. <\/p>\n

He\u2019d accused the then Labour Government of neglecting India.<\/p>\n

The last National Government had begun trade talks with India, but they fell apart<\/a>. India is among the most protectionist economies in the world and New Zealand\u2019s is among the most liberal \u2013 the two sides had very little on which they could agree. <\/p>\n

Labour never restarted those talks, believing that a trade deal that had so little on offer for the dairy sector was not really worth it for a country whose exports were as heavily weighted towards dairy as New Zealand\u2019s.<\/a><\/p>\n

Announcing the deal, Luxon paid tribute to his trade minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the election, Todd McClay has visited India seven times. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Foreign Minister has visited India twice. Earlier this year, I led New Zealand\u2019s largest-ever trade mission to India. And New Zealand has hosted India\u2019s President and two ministerial visits from India.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result is a high-quality trade agreement with a trusted partner that will deliver deep and lasting benefits for New Zealand.” <\/p>\n

Trade deal highlights:<\/p>\n

Tariff elimination or reduction on 95% of our exports. Duty-free access\u202fon\u202falmost 57%\u202fof New Zealand exports from day one,\u202fincreasing\u202fto 82% when fully implemented, with the remaining 13% being subject to sharp tariff cuts. Immediate tariff elimination on sheep meat, wool, coal and over 95% of forestry\u202fand wood\u202fexports. Duty-free access\u202fon most seafood exports, including mussels and salmon, over seven years. Duty-free access\u202fon most iron,\u202fsteel\u202fand\u202fscrap aluminium, over 10 years\u202for less. Duty-free access for most industrial products, over five to 10 years 50% tariff cut for\u202flarge quota\u202fof apples \u2013 nearly double recent average exports. Duty-free access for\u202fkiwifruit within a quota almost four times our\u202frecent average exports, and tariff halved for\u202fexports\u202foutside of\u202fquota. Duty-free access for\u202fcherries, avocados,\u202fpersimmons\u202fand\u202fblueberries, over\u202f10 years. Tariffs on wine reduced\u202ffrom 150% to\u202feither\u202f25\u202for\u202f50% (depending on the value of the wine) over 10 years\u202fplus\u202fMost\u202fFavoured\u202fNations (MFN)\u202fcommitment. Tariffs on\u202fm\u0101nuka\u202fhoney\u202fcut\u202ffrom 66% to 16.5% over five years. MFN\u202fstatus and liberalisation across services exports.\u202fDuty-free access\u202ffor\u202fdairy and other\u202ffood ingredients\u202ffor re-export\u202ffrom day one. Duty-free access\u202ffor bulk infant formula and other\u202fhigh-value\u202fdairy\u202fpreparations\u202fover seven years. 50% tariff cut for high value milk albumins within a New Zealand-specific quota equal to current export volumes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said the deal\u2019s dairy access was bad and also criticised the visa access. It is not the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3469,53499,3468,86192,3214,1888,2082,4975,266,2344,702,20513,111,43,139,5006,69,102631,312,1886,7677,584,5977,1533,102,2963],"class_list":["post-195987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-agreed","tag-comprehensive","tag-deal","tag-eliminates","tag-exports","tag-first","tag-for","tag-free","tag-government","tag-india","tag-it","tag-legislation","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-reduces","tag-says","tag-support","tag-tariffs","tag-trade","tag-which","tag-will","tag-with","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}