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New Zealand trade minister in new bid to finalize Gulf FTA

Xinhua, September 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser will be looking to finalize a long-negotiated free trade agreement (FTA) with the Arab Gulf states in a visit to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar next week.

Negotiations on the New Zealand-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) FTA successfully concluded in October 2009, but New Zealand has been unable to finalize the agreement to secure greater access to the GCC states of Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar.

Groser said Friday he would also co-chair the fifth meeting of the UAE-New Zealand Joint Economic Commission in Abu Dhabi alongside Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Economy.

"New Zealand has a deepening trade and economic relationship with the UAE, which is now our largest trading partner in the Gulf, " Groser said in a statement.

"The Joint Economic Commission meeting provides a useful opportunity to take stock of this relationship and to look at further areas where we might expand these linkages," he said.

"I will also be discussing how best to progress the GCC-New Zealand FTA, an issue on which the UAE has been a strong supporter, as well as how we can build further successful government-to- government partnerships in the UAE."

In Qatar, he would engage with key Qatari leaders in promoting partnership projects on food safety and road safety, and the air services agreement that had been concluded with Qatar.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Groser traveled to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait in April in another bid to progress the FTA finalization.

The GCC is New Zealand's fifth largest export destination with goods exports worth 1.9 billion NZ dollars (1.21 billion U.S. dollars) last year and exports have grown by an average 10 percent a year over the last decade. Endi