New Delhi, Oct 29 (PTI) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said he will visit New Zealand next week to discuss the proposed free trade agreement between the two countries.
The FTA was officially launched on 16 March 2025.
“We are going to New Zealand next week to try to conclude substantially tight negotiations on a free trade agreement,” Goyal told reporters here.
The third round of negotiations on the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was concluded on September 19 in Queenstown, New Zealand.
India’s bilateral trade with New Zealand will reach $1.3 billion in 2024-25, registering a growth of nearly 49 percent over the previous year.
The proposed FTA is expected to further enhance trade flows, foster investment linkages, strengthen supply chain resilience and create a predictable framework for businesses in both countries.
According to experts, India and New Zealand should address issues of market access for goods, promote cooperation in key sectors and work to improve connectivity to boost bilateral trade.
New Zealand’s average import duty is only 2.3 percent.
India and New Zealand began negotiating the CECA in April 2010 to promote trade in goods, services and investment. However, after nine rounds of discussions, the talks stalled in 2015.
Key merchandise exports from India to New Zealand include clothing, fabrics and home textiles; medicines and medical supplies; refined gasoline; agricultural equipment and machinery such as tractors and irrigation tools, automobile, iron and steel, paper products, electronics, shrimp, diamonds and basmati rice.
The main imports are agricultural goods, minerals, apples, kiwifruit, meat products such as lamb, mutton, milk albumin, lactose syrup, coking coal, logs and timber, wool and scrap metal.
