{"id":366521,"date":"2026-04-06T16:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/366521\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:52:17","slug":"new-zealand-india-fta-delivers-major-tariff-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/366521\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNew Zealand-India FTA delivers major Tariff wins\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Todd McClay
Wellington, April 6, 2026 (from Beehive Website)<\/p>\n

New Zealand and India have concluded a Free Trade Agreement, offering exporters unprecedented access to 1.4 billion Indian customers.<\/p>\n

This historic Agreement eliminates and reduces tariffs on 95% of New Zealand\u2019s exports, among the highest of any Indian FTA, with almost 57% being Duty-Free from Day One, increasing to 82% when fully implemented, with the remaining 13% subject to sharp tariff cuts.<\/p>\n

It\u202fputs\u202fNew Zealand exporters on\u202fan\u202fequal or better footing\u202fto our\u202fcompetitors\u202facross a range of sectors\u202fand opens\u202fthe door to India\u2019s rapidly expanding middle class.\u202f<\/p>\n

Negotiations began on March 21, 2025 and concluded after nine months of intensive effort.<\/p>\n

\"NZ-India<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fresh opportunities for exporters<\/p>\n

This once-in-a-generation\u202fAgreement creates opportunities that New Zealand exporters have never had in India.\u202fThis deal is in New Zealand\u2019s best interest and will deliver thousands of jobs and billions in\u202fadditional\u202fexports.\u202f<\/p>\n

The Indian economy is forecast to grow to\u202f$12 trillion by 2030.<\/p>\n

The India-NZ\u202fFree\u202fTrade Agreement\u202funleashes\u202fhuge potential\u202ffor our world-class\u202fexporters to the world\u2019s largest country and will significantly accelerate progress towards our ambitious goal of doubling the value of exports\u202fover\u202f10 years.<\/p>\n

Preferential Market Access<\/p>\n

In a world-first, New Zealand will have Duty-Free access for a large Kiwifruit quota, nearly four times our current exports, with a 50% tariff applying outside the quota.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the first time in an FTA, India has agreed preferential market access for Apples and Manuka Honey. The FTA has broad service coverage and builds significantly on India\u2019s WTO commitments, with a focus on financial services, e-payments, and FinTech, and includes an MFN clause to future-proof our services trade.<\/p>\n

To protect specialist and iconic New Zealand product names in each other\u2019s markets, we have agreed to establish\u202fGeographical\u202fIndication rules comparable to those we have with the EU.<\/p>\n

This FTA future-proofs New Zealand\u2019s Dairy access by offering a right to negotiate, should India give better access to comparable countries, by triggering an automatic consultation process to consult and upgrade.<\/p>\n

New Zealand exporters will enjoy Duty-Free access for Dairy and other food ingredients for re-export through the FTA, opening the door to greater collaboration and processing and offering access to India\u2019s growing number of FTA partners through a dedicated fast-tracking mechanism.<\/p>\n

\"NZ-India<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Addressing Skills Shortages<\/p>\n

To better provide the skills to grow the New Zealand economy, the Agreement establishes a process for up to an average of 1667 skilled three-year work visas per year. These temporary visas will focus on priority jobs where New Zealand has skills shortages, including doctors, nurses, teachers, ICT and engineering and are non-renewable.<\/p>\n

Sectors will be drawn from the New Zealand skills shortage \u2018Green List,\u2019 with all immigration screening and qualification\/experience requirements remaining unaltered. We have retained the ability to change the Green List to match skills shortages in the economy.<\/p>\n

In addition, to ensure our tourism\u202fand rural\u202fsectors\u202fhave\u202fthe workers\u202fthey need\u202f,\u00a0we have aligned our\u202fWorking\u202fHoliday\u202fScheme\u202fwith\u202fAustralia\u2019s\u202fIndian FTA, providing up to 1000 places each year.<\/p>\n

Meeting Treaty Obligations<\/p>\n

The Agreement includes a Treaty of Waitangi clause allowing us to meet Treaty obligations, as well as Chapters on Customs Facilitation and Clearance, Technical Barriers to Trade, Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Standards, Culture, Trade and Traditional Knowledge, Economic Cooperation, Trade and Sustainable Development.<\/p>\n

We have also agreed to review the FTA one year after entry into force, which provides a mechanism to pursue further improvements for the future.<\/p>\n

This is a good deal that delivers for every New Zealander.<\/p>\n

Trade grows the economy and creates jobs – the NZ India Free Trade Agreement is about future-proofing opportunities for our exporters and allowing Kiwi companies to continue to punch above their weight on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Todd McClayWellington, April 6, 2026 (from Beehive Website) New Zealand and India have concluded a Free Trade Agreement,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-366521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366521","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=366521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}