Trade Minister Tim Groser.
BusinessNZ is congratulating Trade Minister Tim Groser and Chief Negotiator David Walker on getting the best deal possible for New Zealand in the Trans Pacific Partnership.
Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly said the TPP deal opens New Zealand up to trading with an important group of economies.
“Multilateral trade deals are the only way to go for a small country like New Zealand. We’re now assured access to an influential group of trading partners in the pivotal Pacific arena, including the US and Japan.
“This has been a hard deal to conclude with all the competing interests. Concluding these deals requires all parties to make compromises.
“While we did not get all we wanted out of dairy access, sitting on the side-lines was not an option. This trade bloc represents 40% of world GDP.
“If New Zealand wants to broaden its economic base and move away from an over-reliance on selling commodity products to the world, we needed to secure a high quality deal that gives greater market access to both goods and services exports and one that encourages investment.
“We also need a good geographic spread of countries we can trade with and TPP gives us access for the first time on a competitive basis to huge markets. The opportunities from this deal will be bigger than our FTA with China.
“The deal will also see a fair and predictable investment environment for companies investing in overseas markets.”
