What's going on?
OPINION: On the 2nd of May, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced that the 'government remains on track to ban full farm-to-forestry conversion'.
This is part of an ongoing programme to build relationships with one of the world’s most powerful economies and a country NZ would dearly love to get a Free Trade Agreement with.
This will be Todd McClay’s fourth trip to India within a year.
Speaking to Rural News, just before he left, he said the relationship between the two countries is in a much better space than it was a year ago. He says his talks will centre around ways that the two countries can trade more and says already some barriers have come down with logging exports able to go there now.
“But it’s too soon to be talking about any kind of trade architecture, however the Indian government is clear that our relationship with them is a priority across all facets including trade,” he says.
McClay says cultural ties between the two nations are strong and says the visit here of the Indian President and Christopher Luxon’s meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi all point to a growing relationship. He says Mr Modi has personally invited Mr Luxon to visit India and says this will happen in the new year. McClay says accompanying our PM will be a large business delegation.
“All this points to the fact that we are heading in the right direction,” he says.
