Tony Martin: India New Zealand Business Council deputy chair on India FTA signing today

Todd McClay will sign the free trade deal with India in Delhi today following uncertainty as New Zealand First pulled support and Labour held out until the last minute.

Earlier this month some of New Zealand’s top exporters and business associations signed an open letter calling on all political parties to back the agreement. 

India New Zealand Business Council deputy chair Tony Martin told Andrew Dickens, "I think deep down, you know, there's a very strong sense from both sides of the political spectrum that this is the right thing for New Zealand to do."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Big Day Today, Todd McClay will sign the free trade
deal with India in Delhi. It nearly fell over, with
New Zealand first pulling support and Labor holding out until
the very very last minute. The big sticking point is
whether the twenty billion US dollar investment promise is a
guarantee or just a target, and there was some concerned

(00:37):
about immigration. Tony Martin is the Deputy chair of the
India New Zealand Business Council and joins me.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Now, Hello Tony, Hey, good morning Andrew. How are you good.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Were you ever worried that labor was seriously not going
to back it?

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Well, you always have those little moments of concern, But
I think this is not an overnight piece of work.
It's been years and years in the making, so I
think deep down, you know, there is a very strong
sense from both sides of the political spectrum that this
is the right thing for you're going to do.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Whinston Peters said that when the New Zealand Business COUNTIL
came out with the open letter saying, you know, just
go ahead and sign it, he said, which is true.
They never seen the full document because you never see
the full document until it is actually signed and ratified
and then presented to the Parliament for law. Was Winston right,
I believe so.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
I'm not a government official.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay, No, no, what I mean there? Was he right
in saying that the business people who signed a letter
were jumping the gun because they really didn't know what
was in the agreement.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Oh and I don't think so. I mean again, there
are so many different parts and conversations that happened over time.
I think there's pretty good understanding about what all the
different components were that we're going into an overall agreement.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Okay. Now, the big controversy over the twenty billion in
US or thirty billion New Zealand dollars. Is it purely aspirational,
is it that we try to or is it a target?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Oh? Absolutely think it's a target in some of that
New Zealand should really grab hold of as an opportunity
for us to think a little bit differently around what
the next fifteen to twenty years of our business and
economic landscape could look like. It's absolutely an aspiration in
the fact that it's a large number, but think about
how we've grown our economy over the years of different

(02:25):
trade agreements with different countries and different parts of the world.
India is going to be a big part of New
Zealand's future, so I believe we should grab onto that aspiration.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Is it all private capital or will taxpayers money be involved?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
No, the focus is absolutely on private capital. So we
need to really rally New Zealand business around how we
can grab hold of that opportunity.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
But the concern is that this still lasts for fifteen years.
A private capital puts some money into investing in India,
builds of factory, does whatever. Then after fifteen years India
winds back the deal. Then the private firms have lost
all their capital.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Is that a worry, Well, well, it's a worry. I
mean there's risk involved in any business, right, But in
fifteen years time, just think about the value that New
Zealand is looking to contribute to India's growth over that
period of times. There's not a one conversation that happens
in twenty twenty six and then we wait until twenty
forty one until it happens. There's a whole lot of

(03:19):
relational things that will happen in between. So I think
that risk will be minimized by the fact that it's
business and government working together on bringing that to life.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
So after all the negative paplicity about the immigration, about
the aspirational twenty billion dollar investment, let's just reiterate what
do our exporters actually get by us signing this deal today?

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Well, we the free trade agreement will eliminate or reduce
tariffs on ninety five percent of New Zealand exports over time.
So that's a significant reduction on tariff. So that automaticly
gives New Zealand some fantastic advantages with our products and
services into India.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Excellent stuff. Can't wait for the signing? Why aren't you there?

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Which there was only enough everyone that blamed for so
many representatives and you We were lucky to have chair
in the CEO of their organization there along with a
number of New Zealand business representatives, so really chuck for
them all to be there in person today. It truly
is a historic day for New Zealand in our international trade.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Tony, I thank you for coming out on a holiday.
The Tony is the Indian New Zealand business Council Deputy chair.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
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