Exporters celebrate trade deal between the UK and New Zealand

New Zealand has fundamentally agreed to Britain’s second free trade agreement since Brexit and for many exporters it couldn’t come at a better time.

The deal promises $ 1 billion for our economy and is a shot of great economic news in the middle of an otherwise difficult week.

The executive director of the ExportNZ industrial group, Catherine Beard, said Morning report Great Britain wanted to pursue its own trade policy after Brexit and New Zealand had benefited from it.

“It is always very difficult for New Zealand to get high quality free trade agreements; we are a very small economy, there is often not much for it in the country that does the deal with us.

Beard agreed that New Zealand would lend its support to the UK in its application to join the larger Asia-Pacific Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which likely helped bring the bilateral trade deal over the line.

“The timing was great and it really feels like going back to old friends.”

The new deal – only the second such deal the UK has signed since Brexit – will eventually remove tariffs on all New Zealand exports, including honey, wine, kiwi fruit, onions, most industrial products, beef and, most importantly, dairy products .

It will take five years to completely remove tariffs on dairy products and 15 years for sheep and beef, but Fonterra’s executive director Miles Hurrell said Morning report that was by and large not to wait long.

“We’re 150 years old as an industry this year, so there’s nothing in the way of how we work for five years.”

The UK was currently buying one percent of Fonterra’s products compared to China, which accounted for a third of its market, Hurrell said.

“With this opening, we have the opportunity to judge that [UK] Market, see if there are options there.

In addition to trading in agricultural and dairy products, the agreement covers environmental issues, telecommunications, the Waitangi Treaty, intellectual property, and more.

UK High Commissioner for New Zealand, Laura Clarke, admitted that the deal would tie the UK more closely to the Asia-Pacific region and pave the way for joining the CPTTP.

But not everyone in the UK was happy with the arrangement.

The President of the National Farmers’ Union there has denounced this, saying the British government has urged British farmers to “lead some of the world’s most export-oriented farmers on an equal footing”.

Clarke said it was a time of tremendous change for the UK agricultural sector and farmers needed time to adapt.

“We have put in place specific safeguards to recognize these sensitivities in the UK … so in principle the agreement provides that the beef and sheep meat and dairy quota will be gradually increased over time.”

With New Zealand and the UK having opposite seasons, there was an opportunity for food producers from both nations to work together and sell to third markets, Clarke said.

The deal is expected to be ratified in the coming months.