Trade agreements key to removing import tariffs

01 Oct '09

4 min read

The previous government agreed to hold tariffs at 2009 levels until June 2011.

New Zealand has already eliminated all of its tariffs under the Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Agreement and the NZ Singapore Closer Economic Partnership (CEP). Tariffs will be phased out and eliminated under the Thailand-New Zealand CEP and the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (Chile, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore) by 2015, under the China-New Zealand FTA by 2016 and under the ASEAN Australia New Zealand FTA by 2020.

Negotiations with Malaysia have concluded, negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council States and Hong Kong are in their final stages, and the second round of negotiations with the Republic of Korea was held last week. New Zealand also hopes to begin an FTA negotiation soon with India and to launch an expansion of the existing Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement to include Australia, Peru, the United States and Vietnam.

A successful WTO Round would reduce New Zealand's tariffs below current levels. Because New Zealand has already undergone significant tariff reductions, cuts for the vast majority of products are unlikely to occur until around 2015 at the earliest.

New Zealand Government