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EU, New Zealand kick off free trade talks

Xinhua, October 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

The European Union and New Zealand on Thursday set the ball rolling on free trade talks, jointly vowing to further enhance economic ties.

The announcement came after the visiting New Zealand Prime Minister John Key met with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

"Today we committed to start the process for negotiations to achieve swiftly a deep and comprehensive high-quality free trade agreement (FTA)," a joint statement published by the European Commission said.

"We believe that a FTA will support sustainable growth and investment, opening up new trade and business opportunities and generating new employment for our peoples," said the statement.

According to the EU, New Zealand ranked as the 51st largest trade in goods partner of the EU in 2014 while the EU represented New Zealand's third largest trading partner after Australia and China.

Total trade in goods amounted to 7.9 billion euros (8.6 billion U.S. dollars). New Zealand's exports to the EU are largely dominated by agricultural products while EU's exports to New Zealand have much more focused on manufactured goods. Endit