A free-trade deal between the European Union and New Zealand could boost exports by $2 billion a year and save Kiwis “hundreds of millions of dollars a year” in cheaper imports, a business body says.
Business groups have welcomed the prospect of a free trade agreement between the European Union and New Zealand, with agriculture bodies seeing a big upside.
New Zealand Europe Business Council president Franck Olssen forecast a free-trade agreement could be hammered out in two years, now the EU has given the go-ahead for negotiations to begin.
But he said it was “unrealistic” to expect tariff-free trade for all agricultural products.
The council was established in 2005 to grow two-way trade between the EU and New Zealand and its members include European trade offices, embassies and consulates.
NZ International Business Forum chairman Malcolm Bailey said concessions that the EU was likely to demand could include more food labelling rules to protect European regional brands.
That could, for example, require new names for likes of New Zealand-made “parmesan” cheese.
The EU would also likely want a guaranteed level-playing field for European companies competing for government contracts and better rules for Europeans investing in New Zealand, he agreed.
While New Zealand had the most to gain from reducing tariffs, “clearly [the EU] will be focused on all of the things that come in high-quality 21st century trade agreements, such as services, investment and intellectual property,” he said.
