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Todd McClay: Trade Minister on the new trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates · 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: New Zealand has struck its fastest ever free trade deal
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  Speaker 2: with the United Arab Emirates, as in the fastest we've
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  Speaker 2: ever done, and it happens to be with the UAE.
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  Speaker 2: The deal will lift duties on ninety eight point five
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  Speaker 2: percent of New Zealand's exports immediately. That will rise to
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  Speaker 2: nineteen nine percent within three years. And the deal was
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  Speaker 2: all done within four months after the negotiations first started
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  Speaker 2: in May. The Trade Minister is Todd mcclayey.
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  Speaker 3: Todd, Hey, Heather, Hell are you Jim Welthig?
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  Speaker 2: How did you manage to do it this quickly?
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  Speaker 3: Well, two things. I first met with the UA Trade
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  Speaker 3: Minister in January this year, end of January, and I
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  Speaker 3: raised the prospect of a trade deal and said that
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  Speaker 3: I'd go home and talk to my Prime minister, but
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  Speaker 3: we're going to do one, let's be serious. I was
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  Speaker 3: back just about a month later when he hosted the
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  Speaker 3: Trade Mister meeting and I was one of his vice
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  Speaker 3: chairs there and we made a commitment together then that
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  Speaker 3: if we were going to do this. Let's try and
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  Speaker 3: do it the fastest that has been done and one
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  Speaker 3: of the most ambitious, and said, you know, why don't
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  Speaker 3: we try and do everything entry into force on day one.
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  Speaker 3: And we've been sweating and working on negotiators hard for
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  Speaker 3: four months, including the UAE summer holiday, and today we've
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  Speaker 3: announced it. And this is really good news for New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand exporters. It's actually good for every single sector in
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand. There are huge opportunities in that market that's
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  Speaker 3: just growing for us.
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  Speaker 2: How much smaller is this FTA than an FTA with
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  Speaker 2: the GCC.
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  Speaker 3: Well, our trade with the UAE we sell them at
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  Speaker 3: one point one billion dollars worth of goods every year.
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  Speaker 3: Majority of that, about seven hundred million is dairy. Our
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  Speaker 3: trade with Saudi, which is the largest country there is
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  Speaker 3: about the same size. So this is important to us
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  Speaker 3: and it is significant, but it is complementary. The Trade
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  Speaker 3: minister who's down here, we finished the negotiation together last night.
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  Speaker 3: Just a few little issues to go through. He was
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  Speaker 3: asked in the press conference, you know, is this instead
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  Speaker 3: of is an issue for the GCC deal. He said, no,
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  Speaker 3: it's complementary, and he said it believes it would help.
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  Speaker 3: Now the GCC has been you know, it's been sitting
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  Speaker 3: there for seventeen years. Don't want to get hopes up,
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  Speaker 3: but I have been meeting with others. There are Katar
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  Speaker 3: Prime ministers, at Trade Minister and also the Saudi Minister.
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  Speaker 3: And there is interest in New Zealand. Again, but you know,
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  Speaker 3: we've got a little way to go, so this is complementary.
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  Speaker 3: It's a great, great start, it's worth celebrating, and there's
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  Speaker 3: a foothold in the Middle East.
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  Speaker 2: Our first is part of our attraction, the possibility of
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  Speaker 2: attracting their investment money in because it's been noted that
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  Speaker 2: they have about three of the world's biggest sovereign wealth
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  Speaker 2: funds there.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, they do, and so investment is part of this agreement.
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  Speaker 3: We also negotiated a bilateral investment agreement and all that
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  Speaker 3: really does is give certainty to investors in both sides
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  Speaker 3: levels of playing field. It doesn't include that ISDS, that
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  Speaker 3: investor state dispute settlement mechanism that so many people were
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  Speaker 3: worried about. We talk that off, We didn't do it.
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  Speaker 3: There is interest in New Zealand, but their interests in
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  Speaker 3: working with us and could be an infrastructure. They have
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  Speaker 3: a lot of interest in food security. They want to
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  Speaker 3: be able to buy high quality, safe food from New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: the food we produce so they can continue to feed
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  Speaker 3: their population as it grows. So yes, But there's also
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  Speaker 3: a really big part of the agreement is around services
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  Speaker 3: and we have a number of KWI companies up there
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  Speaker 3: doing well. It's a look, it's just a big growing market.
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  Speaker 3: Many more New Zealand companies are going to find it
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  Speaker 3: easy to go up there and do business.
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  Speaker 2: Now do you think that they're going to put money
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  Speaker 2: into us? Are they going to invest into us?
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  Speaker 3: Well, they bought a big business delegation down here with
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  Speaker 3: them and they've been having business to business meetings and
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  Speaker 3: I hear from the delegation of the businessmen on both sides,
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  Speaker 3: men and women, is constructive and they see some opportunities.
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  Speaker 3: So I think we should just see that as a
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  Speaker 3: a first sort of foothold they come and have a look.
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  Speaker 3: The one thing that does happen whenever you sign a
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  Speaker 3: trade deal with another country's trade grows and investment grows,
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  Speaker 3: and it happens without a government being involved. Pretty keen
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  Speaker 3: to see if there are ways they can invest in
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  Speaker 3: our economy that is good for all New Zealanders. And
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  Speaker 3: you know they have said they want to come a
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  Speaker 3: look at that, So there are certainly going to be
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  Speaker 3: some opportunities. We'll have a look and test out where
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  Speaker 3: they should be and make sure they are good for
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand if we bring that investment in Todd.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't true that they actually wanted to strike an FTA
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  Speaker 2: with US as far back as poor I think it
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  Speaker 2: was November twenty twenty one, I read, But we played hard.
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  Speaker 3: To get so in two thousand and eight there was
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  Speaker 3: all but an agreement on the table, but then the
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  Speaker 3: GCC said to them, we'd prefer to do a region
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  Speaker 3: wide one, so the UEA stepped back. I do think that. Look,
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  Speaker 3: I understand a few years ago before he came to government,
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  Speaker 3: they showed renewed interest, but it didn't get off the ground.
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  Speaker 3: There's probably a range of reasons for that. But actually,
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  Speaker 3: you know, when I became Trade Minister, I said to
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  Speaker 3: Christopher Luxeen, you know that I think there's a big
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  Speaker 3: opportunity there we could do something. He said, your job
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  Speaker 3: to get out on the world stage and hustle for
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand exporterers and you know we've been able to
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  Speaker 3: do this and and it is it's actually less than
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  Speaker 3: one hundred working days. A touch off caution. I don't
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  Speaker 3: think the next ones we'll be doing will be as
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  Speaker 3: straightforward as us, but we will just work hard to
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  Speaker 3: make sure we can deliver quality and we're not leaving anything. Whatever.
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  Speaker 3: Anything we can get this good from news inalers, we're
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  Speaker 3: going to be out there doing that brilliant stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Todd, thank you really appreciate your time. That's Todd McLay,
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  Speaker 2: the Trade Minister.
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