Regional and Bilateral Free Trade Agreements

Extract from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website

The Ministry provides policy and negotiating advice in the areas of trade rules, technical barriers to trade, competition, intellectual property and government procurement. The Ministry also plays a central role in the market access / tariff negotiations.

Regional and bilateral free trade agreements have become an important part of New Zealand's international trade policy. New Zealand has used free trade agreements / closer economic partnerships to liberalise trade between economies. A Closer Economic Partnership Agreement with Thailand was negotiated in 2004 and implemented in 2005. Negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with Chile, Brunei and Singapore known as the Trans Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership were concluded in 2005.

Negotiations for further agreements with Malaysia, China and the Association of South East Asian countries are underway.

The Ministry gives particularly high priority to the negotiation of a free trade agreement with China.

We support the trade negotiating effort through our participation in domestic consultations and the development of a parallel work programme with a key Chinese regulatory authority. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) website maintains an extensive index of the documentation of trade agreements, both concluded and under negotiation.

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