{"id":510164,"date":"2026-07-05T00:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T00:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/510164\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T00:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T00:27:09","slug":"election-2026-national-pledges-new-trade-deals-with-seven-economies-if-re-elected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/510164\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2026: National pledges new trade deals with seven economies if re-elected"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNew Zealand is a trading nation. We create jobs and lift incomes by supporting great Kiwi companies to compete on the world stage for a rising share of global trade and investment,\u201d McClay said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrade is not about what leaves our ports, it\u2019s about what comes back into our communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Kiwi businesses sell more to the world, they are able to grow and create more jobs and pay wages that are invested back into the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

McClay said Luxon had succeeded in his promise to secure a free trade deal with India in the Government\u2019s first term despite facing headwinds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe seven markets we have identified offer huge, untapped opportunities for New Zealand exporters. Our exports to these countries are currently worth just $1.8 billion, demonstrating the scale of the opportunity for our exporters,\u201d McClay said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA re-elected National Government will prioritise commencing negotiations with each of these seven markets in the next five years to secure better access for Kiwi companies, boost exports, create jobs and lift incomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement comes six days before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes a whistle-stop visit to New Zealand amid swirling contention over the free trade agreement (FTA) both countries recently signed.<\/p>\n

Luxon recently confirmed Modi would arrive in Auckland on Friday and depart the next day, marking the first such visit by an Indian Prime Minister in 40 years.<\/p>\n

While Luxon has championed Modi\u2019s impending visit as \u201chistoric\u201d, the coalition Government\u2019s disagreement over the FTA deal and its contents has exposed deeper friction over the issue.<\/p>\n

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters \u2013 whose party, New Zealand First, is strongly opposed to the new deal \u2013 recently alleged National ministers were \u201ccovertly\u201d tightening immigration settings for Indians<\/a> off the back of \u201cpoor polling\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told the New Zealand people that [the deal] would mean open-slather immigration from India to New Zealand,\u201d Peters said in Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the National Party has just changed its course \u2013 no doubt due to poor polling \u2013 and they have done so covertly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford later warned the coalition\u2019s infighting could be potentially damaging<\/a> to New Zealand\u2019s relationship with the Indian government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly don\u2019t think it\u2019s helpful for the relationship that we have with the Indian Government for this to be playing out; it\u2019s not helpful at all,\u201d she told reporters at Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to do my best as the Immigration Minister to try and work out what it is that Mr Peters wants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve made decisions around tightening up to make sure that I\u2019ve tried to keep everyone happy and now he\u2019s not happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Peters rejected Stanford\u2019s version of events and urged journalists to request the relevant documents.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNew Zealand is a trading nation. We create jobs and lift incomes by supporting great Kiwi companies to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2246,2840,98451,6694,868,32245,5903,1342,42,9858,3556,25900,117,43,51925,148267,84888,56522,202,40,38,41,39,584,251481,102],"class_list":["post-510164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-2246","tag-across","tag-continents","tag-countries","tag-deals","tag-economies","tag-election","tag-five","tag-headlines","tag-if","tag-national","tag-negotiations","tag-new","tag-news","tag-pledges","tag-pledging","tag-pursue","tag-reelected","tag-seven","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trade","tag-tranche","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510164","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=510164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}