New Zealand foreign minister Winston Peters on Monday strongly objected to the recently announced free trade agreement (FTA) with India, saying it was “neither free nor fair”.
In a lengthy X post, Peters said the deal was bad for New Zealand as it gave too much away without getting much in return.
Peters said that his New Zealand First (NZF) party had urged its coalition partner to work towards securing the best possible deal, adding that it was indicated that signing such a deal would be unwise without a clear parliamentary majority.
“New Zealand First urged its coalition partner not to rush into concluding a low-quality deal with India, and to use all three years of this Parliamentary cycle in order to get the best possible deal,” a part of Peters’ post read.
“National preferred doing a quick, low-quality deal over doing the hard work necessary to get a fair deal that delivers for both New Zealanders and Indians,” Peters added.
The New Zealand foreign minister also said that while the country had fully opened its market to India, this had not been reciprocated in the form of reduced tariff barriers on New Zealand’s key dairy exports.
“This is not a good deal for New Zealand farmers and is impossible to defend to our rural communities. The India FTA would be New Zealand’s first trade deal to exclude our major dairy products – including milk, cheese and butter,” Peters said.
Peters also argued that parts of the FTA do not facilitate two-way trade, but instead focus on easing the movement of Indians to New Zealand and increasing investment flows into India. He said that the kind of access India has got to New Zealand’s labour market under the deal was not granted to even Australia or the UK.
“New Zealand First looks at all proposed changes on migration from the same standpoint: do they protect the ability of New Zealanders to find meaningful employment as well as the integrity of our immigration system? The India deal fails that test. By creating a new employment visa specifically for Indian citizens, it is likely to generate far greater interest in Indian migration to New Zealand – at a time when we have a very tight labour market,” he continued.
The foreign minister’s strong reservations came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon announced the FTA between the two countries, saying it would potentially double bilateral trade in five years and lead to investments of $20 billion in India over the next 15 years.
Negotiations on the deal began in March. PM Modi and Luxon said that the agreement reflected the “shared ambition and political will to further deepen ties”.
Winston Peters’ criticism of the FTA came shortly after. He said that he has utmost respect for External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, adding that he has communicated NZF’s views on the matter with him.