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Todd McClay: Trade Minister on the new trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now New Zealand has struck its fastest ever free trade
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  Speaker 1: deal with the United Arab Emirates, as in the fastest
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: we've ever done, and it happens to be with the UAE.
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  Speaker 1: The deal will lift duties on ninety eight point five
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: percent of New Zealand's exports immediately. That will rise to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: nineteen nine percent within three years. And the deal was
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  Speaker 1: all done within four months after the negotiations first started
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  Speaker 1: in May. The Trade Minister is Todd mclayey.
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  Speaker 2: Todd, Hey, Heather, Hell are you Jim welthin?
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  Speaker 1: How did you manage to do it this quickly?
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  Speaker 2: Well, two things. I first met with the UA Trade
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  Speaker 2: Minister in January of this year, end of January, and
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  Speaker 2: I raised the prospect of a trade deal and said
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  Speaker 2: that I'd go home and talk to my Prime minister,
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  Speaker 2: but we're going to do one, let's be serious. I
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  Speaker 2: was back just about a month later when he hosted
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  Speaker 2: the Trade Mister meeting and I was one of his
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  Speaker 2: vice chairs there and we made a commitment together then
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  Speaker 2: that if we were going to do this, let's try
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  Speaker 2: and do it the fastest that has been done, and
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  Speaker 2: one of the most ambitious, and said, you know, why
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  Speaker 2: don't we try and do everything entry into fourth on
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  Speaker 2: day one. And we've been sweating and working out negotiators
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: hard for four months, including the UAE summer holiday, and
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  Speaker 2: today we've announced it. And this is really good news
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  Speaker 2: for New Zealand exporters. It's actually good for every single
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  Speaker 2: sector in New Zealand. There are huge opportunities in that
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  Speaker 2: market that's just growing for us.
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  Speaker 1: How much smaller is this FTA than an FTA with
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  Speaker 1: the GCC.
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  Speaker 2: Well, our trade with the UAE we sell them at
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  Speaker 2: one point one billion dollars worth of goods every year.
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  Speaker 2: Majority of that, about seven hundred million is dairy. Our
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  Speaker 2: trade with Saudi, which is the largest country there is
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  Speaker 2: about the same size. So this is important to us
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  Speaker 2: and it is significant, but it is complementary. The Trade
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  Speaker 2: Minister who's down here, we finished the negotiation together last night.
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  Speaker 2: Just a few little issues to go through. He was
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  Speaker 2: asked in the press conference, you know, is this instead
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  Speaker 2: of is an issue for the GCC deal. He said no,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: it's complimentary and he said it believes ED would help.
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  Speaker 2: Now the GCC has been you know, it's been sitting
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  Speaker 2: there for seventeen years. Don't want to get hopes up.
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  Speaker 2: But I have been meeting with others. There are Katar
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  Speaker 2: Prime ministers, at Trade minister and also the Saudi Minister,
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  Speaker 2: and there is interest in New Zealand again, but you know,
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  Speaker 2: we've got a little way to go, so this is complementary.
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  Speaker 2: It's a great, great start, it's worth celebrating, and there's
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  Speaker 2: a foothold in the Middle East. Our first is.
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  Speaker 1: Part of our attraction, the possibility of attracting their investment
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  Speaker 1: money in because it's been noted that they have about
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  Speaker 1: three of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they do, and so investment is part of this agreement.
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  Speaker 2: We also negotiated a bilateral investment agreement and all that
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  Speaker 2: really does is give certainty to investors in both sides
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  Speaker 2: levels of playing field. It doesn't include that ISDS, that
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  Speaker 2: investor state dispute settlement mechanism that so many people were
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  Speaker 2: worried about. We talked that off the table and we
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  Speaker 2: didn't do it. There is interest in New Zealand, but
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  Speaker 2: their interests in working with us and could be an infrastructure.
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  Speaker 2: They have a lot of interest in food security. They
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  Speaker 2: want to be able to buy high quality, safe food
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  Speaker 2: from New Zealand the food we produce so they can
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  Speaker 2: continue to feed their population as it grows. So yes,
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  Speaker 2: But there's also a really big part of the agreement
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  Speaker 2: is around services and we have a number of QWI
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  Speaker 2: companies up there doing well. It's a look, it's just
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  Speaker 2: a big growing market. Many more New Zealand companies are
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  Speaker 2: going to find it easy to go up there and
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  Speaker 2: do business.
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  Speaker 1: Now do you think that they're going to put money
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  Speaker 1: into us? Are they going to invest into us?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they bought a big business delegation down here with
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  Speaker 2: them and they've been having business to business meetings and
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  Speaker 2: I hear from the delegation of the businessmen on both sides,
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  Speaker 2: men and women, is constructive and they see some opportunities.
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  Speaker 2: So I think we should just see that as a
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  Speaker 2: foot you a first sort of foothold they come and
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  Speaker 2: have a look. The one thing that does happen whenever
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  Speaker 2: you sign a trade deal with another country's trade grows
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  Speaker 2: and investment grows, and it happens without a government being involved.
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  Speaker 2: But we're pretty keen to see if there are ways
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  Speaker 2: they can invest in our economy that is good for
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  Speaker 2: all New Zealanders. And you know they have said they
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  Speaker 2: want to come a look at that. So there are
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  Speaker 2: certain going to be some opportunities. We'll have a look
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: and test out where they should be and make sure
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  Speaker 2: they are good for New Zealand if we bring that
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  Speaker 2: investment in Todd Is.
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  Speaker 1: It true that they actually wanted to strike an FTA
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  Speaker 1: with US as far back as poor I think it
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  Speaker 1: was November twenty twenty one, I read, But we played
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  Speaker 1: hard to get.
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  Speaker 2: So in two thousand and eight there was all but
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  Speaker 2: an agreement on the table, but then the GCC said
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  Speaker 2: to them, we'd prefer to do a region wide one,
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  Speaker 2: so the UEA stepped back. I do think that. Look,
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  Speaker 2: I understand a few years ago, before he came to government,
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  Speaker 2: they showed renewed interest, but it didn't get off the ground.
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  Speaker 2: There's probably a range of reasons for that. But actually,
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  Speaker 2: you know, when I became Trade Minister, I said to
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  Speaker 2: Christopher Luxe, and you know that I think there's a
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: big opportunity there we could do something. He said, your
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  Speaker 2: job to get out of the world stage and hustle
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  Speaker 2: for New Zealand exporterers. And you know we've been able
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  Speaker 2: to do this and it is it's actually less than
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  Speaker 2: one hundred working days A touch off caution. I don't
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  Speaker 2: think the next ones will be doing will be as
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  Speaker 2: straightforward as us, but we will just work hard to
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  Speaker 2: make sure we can deliver quality and we're not leaving
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  Speaker 2: anything to anything. We can get this good from news inalers,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to be out there doing that brilliant stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Hey Todd, thank you really appreciate your time. That's Tod McLay,
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  Speaker 1: the Trade Minister.