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Tony Martin: India New Zealand Business Council deputy chair on India FTA signing today · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: Big Day Today, Todd McClay will sign the free trade
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  Speaker 2: deal with India in Delhi. It nearly fell over, with
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand first pulling support and Labor holding out until
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  Speaker 2: the very very last minute. The big sticking point is
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  Speaker 2: whether the twenty billion US dollar investment promise is a
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  Speaker 2: guarantee or just a target, and there was some concerned
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  Speaker 2: about immigration. Tony Martin is the Deputy chair of the
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  Speaker 2: India New Zealand Business Council and joins me.
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  Speaker 3: Now, Hello Tony, Hey, good morning Andrew. How are you good.
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  Speaker 2: Were you ever worried that labor was seriously not going
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  Speaker 2: to back it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you always have those little moments of concern, But
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  Speaker 3: I think this is not an overnight piece of work.
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  Speaker 3: It's been years and years in the making, so I
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  Speaker 3: think deep down, you know, there is a very strong
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  Speaker 3: sense from both sides of the political spectrum that this
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  Speaker 3: is the right thing for you're going to do.
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  Speaker 2: Whinston Peters said that when the New Zealand Business COUNTIL
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  Speaker 2: came out with the open letter saying, you know, just
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  Speaker 2: go ahead and sign it, he said, which is true.
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  Speaker 2: They never seen the full document because you never see
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  Speaker 2: the full document until it is actually signed and ratified
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  Speaker 2: and then presented to the Parliament for law. Was Winston right,
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  Speaker 2: I believe so.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not a government official.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, No, no, what I mean there? Was he right
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  Speaker 2: in saying that the business people who signed a letter
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  Speaker 2: were jumping the gun because they really didn't know what
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  Speaker 2: was in the agreement.
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  Speaker 3: Oh and I don't think so. I mean again, there
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  Speaker 3: are so many different parts and conversations that happened over time.
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  Speaker 3: I think there's pretty good understanding about what all the
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  Speaker 3: different components were that we're going into an overall agreement.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. Now, the big controversy over the twenty billion in
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  Speaker 2: US or thirty billion New Zealand dollars. Is it purely aspirational,
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  Speaker 2: is it that we try to or is it a target?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely think it's a target in some of that
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand should really grab hold of as an opportunity
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  Speaker 3: for us to think a little bit differently around what
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  Speaker 3: the next fifteen to twenty years of our business and
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  Speaker 3: economic landscape could look like. It's absolutely an aspiration in
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  Speaker 3: the fact that it's a large number, but think about
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  Speaker 3: how we've grown our economy over the years of different
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  Speaker 3: trade agreements with different countries and different parts of the world.
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  Speaker 3: India is going to be a big part of New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand's future, so I believe we should grab onto that aspiration.
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  Speaker 2: Is it all private capital or will taxpayers money be involved?
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  Speaker 3: No, the focus is absolutely on private capital. So we
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  Speaker 3: need to really rally New Zealand business around how we
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  Speaker 3: can grab hold of that opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: But the concern is that this still lasts for fifteen years.
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  Speaker 2: A private capital puts some money into investing in India,
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  Speaker 2: builds of factory, does whatever. Then after fifteen years India
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  Speaker 2: winds back the deal. Then the private firms have lost
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  Speaker 2: all their capital.
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  Speaker 3: Is that a worry, Well, well, it's a worry. I
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  Speaker 3: mean there's risk involved in any business, right, But in
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  Speaker 3: fifteen years time, just think about the value that New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand is looking to contribute to India's growth over that
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  Speaker 3: period of times. There's not a one conversation that happens
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  Speaker 3: in twenty twenty six and then we wait until twenty
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  Speaker 3: forty one until it happens. There's a whole lot of
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  Speaker 3: relational things that will happen in between. So I think
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  Speaker 3: that risk will be minimized by the fact that it's
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  Speaker 3: business and government working together on bringing that to life.
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  Speaker 2: So after all the negative paplicity about the immigration, about
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  Speaker 2: the aspirational twenty billion dollar investment, let's just reiterate what
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  Speaker 2: do our exporters actually get by us signing this deal today?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we the free trade agreement will eliminate or reduce
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  Speaker 3: tariffs on ninety five percent of New Zealand exports over time.
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  Speaker 3: So that's a significant reduction on tariff. So that automaticly
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  Speaker 3: gives New Zealand some fantastic advantages with our products and
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  Speaker 3: services into India.
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  Speaker 2: Excellent stuff. Can't wait for the signing? Why aren't you there?
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  Speaker 3: Which there was only enough everyone that blamed for so
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  Speaker 3: many representatives and you We were lucky to have chair
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  Speaker 3: in the CEO of their organization there along with a
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  Speaker 3: number of New Zealand business representatives, so really chuck for
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  Speaker 3: them all to be there in person today. It truly
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  Speaker 3: is a historic day for New Zealand in our international trade.
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  Speaker 2: Tony, I thank you for coming out on a holiday.
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  Speaker 2: The Tony is the Indian New Zealand business Council Deputy chair.
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