Todd McLay: Trade Minister on free trade agreement with India

The Government has announced New Zealand will enter into a free trade agreement with India. 

The announcement came overnight as the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has travelled to India this week. 

What does the agreement involve? 

Trade Minister Todd McLay talks to Mike Hosking about the development. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some more good news for New Zealand in because it's
been announced overnight as part of the PM's trade trip
to India this week, they've officially launched free trade negotiations.
So what are we looking at for specifically and how
long does it take trade? Minutes to Todd McLay is
in India and with us morning, Good morning mate, So
India and FTA, if you can crack this, this would
be one of the big prizes. Surely.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. There's one point four
billion people and their income are growing. We've put a
huge amount of work into this relationship over the last
fifteen months across the board, not only in trade, and
it started to be reciprocated. So we're really pleased to
have formally launched the negotiation with India. First negotiators. We'll

(00:41):
get together early next month. And although you know it's
very pleasing we've made this progress, I've got to say
the hard work starts now.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
You're going to have to flag deary, aren't you.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, we're not. We haven't ruled anything in or out
on either side because we said we want to be
a comprehensive agreement. It's fair to say that it's important,
you know, for different reasons to both countries. But we've
also agreed we're not going to talk about the negotiation
outside of the room. We want to back out negotiators
be able to get in and do the best that

(01:13):
they can. And you know, both the Minister Guael, my counterpartner,
I have said if we're out talking about it in public,
it makes it harder for them. The assurance I can
give you in every New Zealander is we'll be getting
the best deal that we can.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Though from India, do you have a bottom line at
which point you'll simply have to walk away as badly
as you may want it.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, I don't think we will have to work walk away,
although you know it had happened nine years ago last
time into negotiation. We've spent the fifteen months sort of
talking through issues this, you know. I've been India five
times now. I've had eight meetings with my counterpart and
my last visit was up in December. Our officials have
been meeting frequently on the telephone and flying up and

(01:55):
down and seeing each other. I've been talking to Minister
Guel a lot on the telephone and have a very
clear understanding of how we might put together some of
the issues that have been more challenging previously. So we
both agreed a little while ago we should only launch
if we believe we can conclude an agreement and we're
committed to it. And I was locked away for most

(02:16):
of the day within the day, just working through various issues,
and we've got to a point where we have agreed
we should launch, So we're backing ourselves to get a
deal done.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
I was listening to Vandalayan and Europe the other day
say they should get something done with India by the
end of the year. Does this represent a new attitude
from India or have you just bludgeoned them to the
table to talk.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
It's a little bit of both. We started a while
ago and they've never said no, they wouldn't do a
deal with us. But you know, we're a small economy
back in comparisons to their size. But I do think
as a result of what's happening with tariffs and so
one around the world, you're seeing a lot more countries
who have been hesitant to do trade deals, you know,

(02:56):
leaning into that a little bit more. I mean, I
was talking to the EU commisis, you know, just a
week ago Trade Commissioner, and he was saying, well, you know,
as the rest of the world is doing whatever, we're
going to support trade rules, you know, so we can
give certainty to our businesses and we're going to find
ways to do more trade with each other. So I
think that's probably part of it. But you know, Prime
Minister Luxeon said when we're in opposition and again forming

(03:19):
a government, our relationship with India would be a strategic
priority across the board and trade is part of that.
And I think we're starting to see, you know, with
the announcement today on our first day here, as you know,
the biggest trade mission New Zealand's ever done to India,
this announcement that India is reciprocating the effort we're putting in.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Speaking of tariffs, you spent some time with James and Grea,
who's Trump's trade man. Is Is that going to go
well or not?

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Well? Look, my feeling is the world will see tariffs.
It's not clear whether it's going to be unilateral or
you know, country by country. He's certainly looking very very
closely at Canada and that's going to get tough. The
announcements around Europe as well. The station I had with
jameson Greer last week extended to forty five minutes, much

(04:04):
longer than we're scheduled, and it was very, very constructive
and friendly. There aren't too many things that the US
are worried about or singling out around New Zealand. I
was able to make the case about we respect the
rules that actually European exporters have much lower tariff rates
into our market than ours do over there, and we've
agreed that we're going to meet quite soon, probably up

(04:26):
in Washington, to talk further. So there's no indication that
they are focusing on New Zealand, but if they decide
to put tariffs on everybody, we are likely to get
caught by that one way or another.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
All right, go well this week appreciated Trade minis to
Tom McLay up in India.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
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