A women-led FTA to benefit our farmers, students and MSMEs: Goyal on India–New Zealand deal

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal today said India-New Zealand free trade agreement (FTA) signed today will benefit the Indian farmers, MSMEs, and students. This is the third such bilateral trade pact India signed this year.

Underlining that this is a women-led FTA, Goyal said during a press conference in New Delhi, “This deal is diverse and includes trade, education, R&D and innovation, the services sector, tourism and sports.”

“It is a multifarious engagement, particularly benefiting our farmers and the dairy sector through tactical collaboration, which will help improve quality, productivity and therefore the incomes of our farmers and dairy persons,” Goyal added.

Goyal also shared some unique aspects of the deal. He said that this is a first-ever women-led FTA. “It is completely led by women. Second, this is the third FTA with a ‘Five Eyes’ nation,” he said. ‘Five Eyes' refers to US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who share an intelligence-sharing alliance.

It began during World War II and is one of the closest intelligence partnerships in the world. The members share signals intelligence, cyber intelligence, and security assessments, especially on terrorism, defence, and geopolitical threats.

Because of this deep cooperation, these countries often align closely on security and foreign policy issues, though they remain independent in their decision-making.

The minister also hinted that the government is soon going to launch discussions for the terms of reference with Canada as well.

Growth potential

While briefing on the FTA, Goyal said that New Zealand has a smaller population and GDP (Gross Domestic Product), but its potential for growth remains high.

“Our current trade is a small proportion of their overall trade in goods and services, but the upside available for us is very huge, both in goods and services,” he added.

Goyal further mentioned that the expanded access across a wide range of services, including audio-visual, along with 100% access in goods, offers tremendous potential to “double trade over the next five years, and possibly more”.

Complementary strengths

The minister also spoke about the complementary strengths of India and New Zealand in agritech, food processing, clean and green energy, mining, and young talent and professionals.

This deal is expected to be a big boost for India’s labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, apparel, home decor, footwear, rubber and leather. “We are also encouraging the exports of automobiles, auto components, machinery, electronic goods, electricals, pharmaceuticals and chemicals,” Goyal said.

“This will benefit a wide range of areas, particularly where either high duties or certain areas were barriers to trade, which we have both agreed to simplify and make smoother for faster access to their market,” he added.

Indian students to gain

The minister further informed that students who go to study in New Zealand will now be eligible for a two-year work visa. If they take a degree course, they will get a three-year work visa, and if they are pursuing STEM education, that will make them eligible for a four-year work visa.

“We are also supporting New Zealand to set up high-quality educational campuses in India and encouraging our students to go to New Zealand to pursue high-quality education,” Goyal said.