Trade Minister Todd McClay will formally sign the long-awaited free trade agreement with India in New Delhi on Monday night (NZT), marking what the government describes as a “generational breakthrough” for New Zealand exporters.
McClay will be joined by a large cross-party delegation and more than 30 business leaders, underscoring the broad commercial support for the deal. A joint business summit with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will also be held, highlighting the scale of opportunity in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
Speaking ahead of the signing, McClay said the agreement opens the door to a market of 1.4 billion people, with rising incomes and expanding consumer demand.
“The New Zealand economy is getting on at the ground floor of that, and I think, in the future, this will be one of the most significant trade agreements to help secure our economy – but a lot of people have worked very hard to make sure we can get there.”
The deal, a key election promise from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, was progressed after repeated engagement with Indian counterparts, including seven visits by McClay since the coalition took office.
However, the agreement was nearly delayed by political manoeuvring, with New Zealand First outright opposing the deal.
NZ First leader Winston Peters has raised objections to the migration provisions in the deal, the limited gains for the dairy sector, and concerns over a clause requiring the government to encourage $US20 billion in private investment into India over the next 15 years.
Business leaders have dismissed such concerns as peripheral to the major gains in trade access.
Labour ultimately confirmed its support only after weeks of delay and negotiations, prompting criticism from the government that the party risked undermining a major national economic opportunity for political positioning.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis accused Labour of unnecessarily dragging out the process, warning that the delay reflected political calculations rather than economic judgement.
“We’ve been giving you advice for four months; we’ve had more than 20 meetings; we’ve responded to all of your requests. You’re trying to draw this out and, as I say, you’re playing into exactly the same concerns that New Zealand First is trying to whip up.”
“You’re making a very political choice, and I think it’s unfortunate, because what I think we should be doing on a matter like this is putting the interests of our people and our economy first.”
Trade Minister McClay was more diplomatic but noted the drawn-out approval process was unnecessary given the scale of the opportunity.
“No, I haven’t been frustrated by it,” he said. “I mean, it’s important to go through it, but we’ve had to do the legal scrubbing, and once that was finished, we reached agreement on a date to sign.
“It happens to have coincided with when Labour have said they’ll give their support.”
“You’ve got to consider their trade spokesman was in China last week. We had to wait until he was back, until he could have the meeting.”
McClay said the agreement opens up major opportunities for New Zealand exporters. “They’ve made the right decision, and I’m grateful to them,” he added.