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Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand executive director Kimberly Crewther.
The dairy industry will be a major beneficiary of a new free trade deal between NZ and the Gulf Co-operation Council whose members include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The deal was announced recently by Trade Minister Todd McClay who described it as the highest quality deal the GCC has done to date and its first with a major agricultural exporter.
He says it delivers duty free access for 99% of New Zealand's exports over 10 years and when combined with the recently concluded NZ-UAE CEPA, 51% of NZ exports to the region will be tariff-free from day one.
"The NZ and GCC trade is worth over $3 billion annually, with New Zealand exporting $2.6 billion in the year to June 2024. This includes $1.8 billion of dairy, $260 million of red meat, $72 million of horticulture and $70 million of travel and tourism services," he says.
Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ) welcomes this deal along with the other recent deal between NZ and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
DCANZ executive director Kimberly Crewther says NZ exported approximately $1.9 billion worth of dairy products to the GCC region in the last year.
"This makes the GCC region our second-largest dairy market after China.
"Locking in elimination of the already low tariffs on key dairy products into this highly valuable market provides important commercial certainty for dairy exporters," she says.
Crewther says Trade Minister Todd McClay and NZ's trade negotiators should be congratulated on the conclusion of these negotiations.
She says the fact that NZ is the first major dairy exporter to secure a free trade agreement with the GCC is very significant and DCANZ commends the Government for this outcome.
"We strongly encourage the Government to maintain momentum and ambition to bring down barriers with other negotiating partners, including upgrading existing trade agreements that have not yet secured dairy tariff elimination," she says.
Meanwhile, the executive director of the NZ International Business Forum, Stephen Jacobi, says the deal should enable further expansion of trade with the GCC's six members in the Middle East. He says the GCC region is NZ's seventh largest export destination and this new agreement puts the final touch on the framework for expanding trade ties in the region.
"We see potential to grow our exports to the GCC in the dairy, sheep, meat, seafood, horticulture and wood products sectors.
"There is also increasing interest in vital services such as ICT, education, environmental and professional services. There are also new opportunities for GCC goods, services and investment in our market," he says.
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