Todd McClay: Trade Minister on India and New Zealand starting the first round of Free Trade Agreement negotiations

A Kiwi negotiation team is in India this week, holding our first in-person Free Trade Agreement talks.

Trade Minister Todd McClay says it's an important step in our relationship with one of the world's fastest growing economies.

He says this will be the first of many meetings with New Zealand.

McClay explained India is also holding talks with the US, UK, EU and others over this week and the next.

"That's why I thought to send our people up - rather than either drag them down here or miss the opportunity to have the very first in-person negotiations."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some good news on the trade front. New Zealand and
India are starting the first round of negotiations towards a
free trade agreement this week. Trade Minister Tom mcclay's with
me now, Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Todd, Hey Heather, he hope will you I'm very well.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Who have we sent to India?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
So our chief trade negotiator has gone out there plus
a team with them as a good number of them.
So this is the first formal in person negotiations that
we're having. But there's been a lot of engagement online
and zooms and so on since the Prime Minister and
I announced that we were launching negotiations or what is
just about a month ago?

Speaker 1 (00:34):
And how long do you expect this to take? How
long are the in person negotiations slated for?

Speaker 3 (00:39):
So they will run through this week, So it'll take
a week.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
There are many, many meetings, and so why we take
a good sized team out because we have experts in
many areas that they focus on from goods to services
to intellectual property and so on. They'll work through that.
This will be the first of what will be a
number of in person and negotiations. I would inspect the
next one probably will be down in New Zealand, but

(01:02):
we decided to go up there. India's got quite a
few negotiations going on, so for scheduling, rather than waiting,
we thought I'd send my people up there so we
can get on with it.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Are they distracted by trying to strike a deal with
the US?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
They're not.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I discussed this with my counterpart, Pis Goel, who's the
quote their trade minister.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
We talked a lot about this before we launch.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
They have the capacity to negotiate a number of deals
at the same time as we do. Actually, so you're
right there and get that. They negotiating with the US
at the moment, with the European Union, with the UK
and others. Some of those I understand are going on
over the next week or two. And that's why I
thought to send our people up rather than either dragging
them down here or missed the opportunity to have the
very first in person negotiations at the beginning of this month.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Todd I see. Donald Trump has announced on one of
his social media accounts that he plans to put one
hundred percent tariff on foreign movies, which, obviously, if he
was to do it would affect US because we make
movies here. Are we taking this seriously?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, we are very seriously.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Although as with lots of sort of announcements that come
via social media, we're gonna have to wait and try
and get a bit more information or see what comes out.
I mean, as an example, if it's whole movies that
are made overseas means one thing. But what if you
know just one segment or one part or some of
the technical stuff that's done overseas. So we don't know yet,

(02:18):
but I can say the Prime Minister was I was.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
With them earlier. You know, the New Zealand film industry
is exceptional. They do a great job.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
A lot of the US film and listry relies on
some of the things that we do here that you
can't do another part of the world. So quite a
long way to go before we have any clarity, just
asn't aside. I'll be meeting my counterpart, the United States
Trade Representative of Ambassador Greer, in the end of next
week at APEC meeting in Korea, and it'll be my

(02:47):
first chance in person to talk to them directly about
these things. I will be making the case for how
US movie is named. It may not be anywhere there
is enjoyable without some New Zealand content.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I like that. Hey, thanks very much, Todd Beast of
like Tod McLay, Trade Minister.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
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