New Zealand and India have concluded a free trade agreement that will cut or remove tariffs on 95 percent of New Zealand exports, with nearly 57 percent duty-free from day one and 82 percent once fully phased in. The deal is expected to be signed in the first half of next year.

Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay said the agreement puts exporters on an equal or better footing in India, a market of 1.4 billion consumers. Negotiations began on 21 March and wrapped up after nine months.

Immediate tariff elimination applies to sheep meat, wool, coal and more than 95 percent of forestry and wood exports. Most seafood, including mussels and salmon, will move to duty-free over seven years. Most industrial products, and many iron, steel and scrap aluminium lines, phase to duty-free within 10 years or less.

Horticulture gets a mix of duty-free quotas and tariff reductions:

• Kiwifruit will have duty-free access within a quota nearly four times recent export volumes, with a 50 percent tariff on shipments outside the quota.
• Apples receive a 50 percent tariff cut within a large quota described as nearly double recent exports.
• Cherries, avocados, persimmons and blueberries go duty-free over 10 years.
• Wine tariffs fall from 150 percent to either 25 or 50 percent over 10 years, depending on value, alongside a “most favoured nation” clause.
• Mānuka honey tariffs drop from 66 percent to 16.5 percent over five years.

Dairy access remains circumscribed but expands in specific areas. Dairy and other food ingredients destined for re-export will be duty-free from day one. Bulk infant formula and other high-value dairy preparations phase to duty-free over seven years, and there is a 50 percent tariff cut for high-value milk albumins within a New Zealand-specific quota equal to current export volumes. The agreement includes a mechanism to revisit dairy access if India grants better terms to comparable countries.

Services provisions build on India’s WTO commitments, with a focus on financial services, e-payments and fintech, and include an MFN clause. The deal also includes a Treaty of Waitangi clause, and chapters on customs facilitation, technical barriers, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, culture, traditional knowledge, economic cooperation, and trade and sustainable development. The parties have agreed to review the agreement one year after it enters into force.

Immigration settings form part of the package. The government has set up a process for up to an average of 1,667 three-year, non-renewable skilled visas annually for roles on the Green List, including doctors, nurses, teachers, ICT and engineering. Usual immigration screening and qualification requirements still apply, and the Green List can be updated. The working holiday scheme for Indian nationals will be aligned with Australia’s settings, with up to 1,000 places each year.

Geographical indication rules “comparable to those we have with the EU” will be established to protect specialist product names in each market.

Mr McClay said the agreement would “deliver thousands of jobs and billions in additional exports,” and “significantly accelerate progress towards New Zealand’s goal of doubling the value of exports over 10 years.” Full details and schedules are to be published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.