Euro leaders want to trade with NZ

McClay says when he was in Paris at the OECD recently he met with the EU Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, who confirmed her organisation was on track to launch the negotiations by the end of the year.

NZ’s reputation for fairness in negotiating trade deals is working in our favour, McClay says. We have a reputation for doing quality deals.

“Such is our reputation that Cecilia Malmström told me if the EU can’t do a deal with NZ we can’t do a deal with anyone."

He says the EU's willingness to begin talks is due to NZ's efforts over the last couple of years. He has personally met with representatives of most EU member states and some he has seen several times.

“At some stage I will seek a mandate from the cabinet to begin talks and Cecilia Malmström is going through a similar process. But there are 27 countries to deal with so it takes a bit longer,” he says.

“They have all said they want to do a FTA with NZ, but some have also noted there will be a challenge in access for our agricultural products. We know that; it is always challenging for NZ on dairy and meat, so we will just go and get the best deal we can.”

Also helpful from NZ’s point of view is that many EU countries, notably Netherlands and Ireland, have strong cultural and historical ties with us. And many new EU members are also talking up an FTA with us, including members of the former Soviet Union bloc.

“They are economies that want to trade with the world and they become richer with trade and that’s why they are open to that idea of an FTA. When the UK voted to leave the EU, people said ‘your best friend has gone’, but we have still many, many countries that support NZ on trade."