By Mike Bain\/cvnznews.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay has departed for New Delhi to formally sign the New Zealand\u2013India Free Trade Agreement, a deal the Government says will unlock major export gains in one of the world\u2019s fastest\u2011growing economies. The signing delegation includes MPs from across Parliament and more than 30 New Zealand business representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agreement \u2014 long sought by successive governments \u2014 will eliminate or reduce tariffs on 95% of New Zealand\u2019s exports<\/strong>, with 57% duty\u2011free from day one<\/strong>, rising to 82% once fully implemented<\/strong>. Key sectors including sheep meat, wool, forestry, coal, and most industrial products will see immediate or staged tariff removal. Fruit exporters will benefit from large quota increases for apples and kiwifruit, while wine tariffs will fall from 150% to as low as 25% over ten years. M\u0101nuka honey tariffs will drop from 66% to 16.5% over five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McClay said the FTA demonstrates the Government\u2019s commitment to strengthening ties with India and supports its goal of doubling export value within a decade. He will also attend an Anzac Day dawn service in India and co\u2011host a business summit with Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal before travelling to Singapore for further trade promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Labour Party has now formally announced it will support the FTA, giving the agreement broad cross\u2011party backing. Labour\u2019s endorsement removes any doubt about the deal\u2019s political durability and signals a rare moment of unity on major trade policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While business groups have welcomed the agreement, the Maritime Union of New Zealand<\/strong> has issued a warning about the potential impact on workers. In comments reported by Scoop, the union said that any major expansion in trade must be matched with investment in New Zealand\u2019s port workforce and infrastructure, arguing that supply\u2011chain resilience cannot be taken for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The union also raised concerns about labour standards in trade agreements more broadly, saying workers should not be \u201cleft behind\u201d as exporters gain new market access. Their comments reflect a wider debate about how New Zealand balances economic opportunity with protections for domestic labour and fair\u2011work principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand has pursued a trade agreement with India for more than a decade, with previous negotiations stalling over dairy access and tariff sensitivities. The conclusion of talks in December 2025 marked a significant diplomatic shift, and today\u2019s signing represents the most substantial advance in the bilateral relationship in years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For exporters, the deal promises new certainty and long\u2011term growth potential. For policymakers, it marks a strategic deepening of ties with a rising global power. And for workers\u2019 groups, it is a reminder that trade gains must be matched with investment in people and infrastructure at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Mike Bain\/cvnznews.com Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay has departed for New Delhi to formally sign the New Zealand\u2013India Free Trade Agreement, a deal the Government says will unlock major export gains in one of the world\u2019s fastest\u2011growing economies. The signing delegation includes MPs from across Parliament and more than 30 New Zealand business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[1023,283,113],"coauthors":[709],"class_list":{"0":"post-12364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-fta","9":"tag-india","10":"tag-new-zealand"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/FTA-McLay.avif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12366,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12364\/revisions\/12366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12364"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}