New Zealand will reach a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom in August, Trade Minister Damien O’Connor says.
O’Connor met with his British counterpart, Secretary of Trade Liz Truss, in London on Thursday, New Zealand time, and issued a statement early on Saturday. An “agreement in principle” would be reached in August.
“I reaffirmed New Zealand’s wish to see a high-quality agreement concluded with the UK as swiftly as possible,” he said.
“For New Zealand that means receiving a market access offer that eliminates tariffs and provides commercially meaningful access from day one of the agreement.”
LIZ TRUSS/TWITTERThe deadline for the deal comes days after the UK reached an “agreement in principle” for its free trade agreement with Australia.
Details of the Australia deal, published on Thursday, show the two countries agreed to removing tariffs and quotas on all products. Australia’s beef and sheep meat tariffs and quotas being progressively lifted over 15 years, and dairy products over five years.
Beef and sheep meat tariffs have been a sticking point for the NZ-UK free trade deal, due to concerns within the agriculture sector in the UK that free trade deals would adversely affect British farmers.
“Achieving an ambitious deal remains our priority. Building on the outcomes of our discussions in London this week, we are both confident that our negotiating teams will be able to make important progress over the coming weeks,” O’Connor said in the statement.
O’Connor previously said a “good ambition” was to remove tariffs on New Zealand products within 10 years.
And, in heading to the UK, he said would be working to persuade agricultural leaders in Britain that New Zealand were not huge volume exporters, and would not be swamping their market.
On Saturday, he said he had met with industry representatives, the UK Secretary for Food and Rural Affairs George Eustice, and with Minister for the Cabinet Office Lord Frost.
He will leave the UK on Monday and travel to Brussels to speak to his EU counterpart about the ongoing NZ-EU free trade agreement negotiations.
Upon returning to New Zealand on June 25, he will spend two weeks in managed isolation and quarantine.
O’Connor was the first Cabinet minister to leave New Zealand since the country shut its borders to keep out the Covid-19 pandemic.
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