China-New Zealand relations: upgrade to free-trade agreement eliminates nearly all trade tariffs

Name: China and New Zealand sign upgraded free-trade deal, eliminating nearly all trade tariffs
Uploaded: 2021-01-26T11:00:34.000Z
Duration: 1 min 25 s
Description: China and New Zealand sign upgraded free-trade deal, eliminating nearly all trade tariffs

Pact widens existing trade deal between Beijing and Wellington that was last upgraded in November 2019, after a similar review between China and Australia failed to manifest last month

All New Zealand dairy exports to China will also be tariff-free by 2024, while wood and paper products from New Zealand get a boost from the revamp

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In 2008, New Zealand delegates travelled to China to sign a free-trade agreement that was upgraded this week. Photo: Getty Images

Orange Wang

Published: 7:00pm, 26 Jan 2021Updated: 11:05am, 4 Mar 2021

China and New Zealand have completed a review and expansion of their free-trade agreement a month after Beijing and Canberra abandoned an opportunity to do the same.

China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, and New Zealand’s minister for trade and export growth, Damien O’Connor, signed an “upgrade” to the China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) at a virtual ceremony on Tuesday.

The pact widens the existing trade deal between the countries that commenced in 2008 and was last upgraded in November 2019 after three years of negotiations.

“Signing the upgrade [shows that] China is taking concrete action towards practising multilateralism and building an open world economy, and it is an important step in our strategy to lift free-trade zones,” Wang said in a statement published on the website of China’s Ministry of Commerce.

The signing’s timing was also symbolic, occurring a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke at the virtual World Economic Forum, asking for global economies to increase multilateralism and openness while setting aside ideological confrontations that could “push the world into division, even confrontation”.

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China and New Zealand sign upgraded free-trade deal, eliminating nearly all trade tariffs

The enhanced deal further shows that China wants to do business with members of the Five Eyes alliance – the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand – under the right conditions.