THE BUSINESS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE
THE BUSINESS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE
A comprehensive trade agreement with New Zealand will cut red tape for businesses, end tariffs on UK exports and create new opportunities for tech and services companies, while making it easier for UK professionals to live and work in New Zealand.
The ground-breaking deal was agreed in a video call on 20th October between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern after 16 months of talks by Department for International Trade negotiators.
UK-New Zealand trade was worth £2.3 billion last year and is set to grow under the deal. The deal will remove barriers to trade and deepen access for our advanced tech and services companies, while making it easier for smaller businesses to break into the New Zealand market.
Tariffs as high as 10% will be removed on a huge range of UK goods, from clothing and footwear to buses, ships, bulldozers and excavators, giving British exporters an advantage over international rivals in the New Zealand import market - a market which is expected to grow by around 30% by 2030. High-quality New Zealand products loved by British consumers, from Sauvignon Blanc wine to Manuka honey and kiwi fruits, could be cheaper to buy.
UK workers will benefit from improved business travel arrangements and professionals such as lawyers and architects will be able to work in New Zealand more easily, allowing UK companies to set up shop and bring the best British talent with them. Both sides have also committed to a mobility dialogue outside the trade agreement that will consider how people-to-people links can be deepened further.
The New Zealand trade deal follows advanced free trade agreements already struck with Australia and Japan and helps pave the way for UK to join Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade area of 11 Pacific nations with a GDP of £8.4 trillion in 2020.
The International Trade Committee launched a new inquiry on 21st October on the prospective UK–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement.
The Committee Chair has written to the Secretary of State for International Trade, Rt. Hon. Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, calling her to give evidence.
The Committee is particularly interested in finding out how this agreement will affect people and businesses across the UK, and its likely economic, social and environmental impacts.
To find out more and if you want to submit written evidence to the inquiry, click here.
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