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This bulletin provides an update on New Zealand’s negotiation of a Closer Economic Partnership (CEP) agreement with Chile and Singapore, including the preparation of a services negative list.
Contact details are provided at the end if you require further information.
At the APEC Leader’s Summit in October 2002, New Zealand, Chile, and Singapore announced they would embark on negotiation of a trilateral closer economic partnership agreement, the Pacific Three (P3).
This is the first trilateral CEP within APEC that spans the Pacific and will reinforce the strategic relationships that exist between the three countries.
The CEP will be comprehensive and forward-looking. It will set high quality benchmarks on trade rules that will help to promote trade liberalisation and facilitation, and economic and technical cooperation within the APEC region.
A successful first round of P3 negotiations was held in Singapore in September 2003. Following a pause requested by Chile, the second round of negotiations is scheduled to take place in New Zealand 18-20 August 2004. This follows the visit to New Zealand and Singapore by President Lagos of Chile during which he reaffirmed Chile’s commitment to the P3 CEP.
Further rounds are tentatively scheduled for late 2004, January/February 2005 and March 2005. The target for the conclusion of negotiations is April 2005.
It is envisaged that the agreement will cover areas including trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights, trade and labour, trade and environment, competition policy, rules of origin, technical barriers to trade, trade remedies, government procurement and sanitary/phytosanitary measures. It will encourage cooperation among the partners in areas such as science and technology and agriculture. It will also include provisions relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.
As noted in our information bulletin of September 2003, it is expected that services commitments will be scheduled in all three countries using a “negative list” structure.
Where it is decided not to make binding commitments regarding treatment of Singaporean and Chilean service suppliers, these areas will be explicitly carved out through being included on a list. Hence the term “negative list”. Absent such a carve-out, the agreement will apply. This differs in form from the NZ-Singapore CEP, which adopted a positive list approach. The positive list works by explicitly listing in the schedules the sectors where commitments apply.
A negative list approach holds out the prospect of achieving greater clarity about what is "in" or "out" of the CEP. For services exporters, it will provide more transparency and certainty about the rules for doing their business with Chile and Singapore. The negative list approach also offers scope to clearly and unambiguously carve out sectors such as public education, health, and drinking water.
Analysis of New Zealand’s regulatory framework is under way to support preparation of New Zealand’s negative list. This analysis is required because New Zealand will incur legal obligations to services exporters from Chile and Singapore in those areas not included on the negative list. The target date for completion is October 2004.
The second ministerial review of the implementation of the New Zealand/Singapore Closer Economic Partnership Agreement was held in Wellington on 13 July 2004. As the P3 negotiations will be the main forum for further development of the NZ/Singapore CEP, the review focused on activities that New Zealand and Singapore could undertake bilaterally to improve the implementation of the existing agreement and promote two-way trade and investment, in particular through regulatory cooperation.
A copy of the Joint Ministerial Statement on the ANZSCEP Review and further information about the New Zealand/Singapore CEP is on the MFAT website.
The New Zealand CEP negotiating team is committed to full engagement with key stakeholders including business, unions, local government, Maori and NGOs on all aspects of the P3 negotiations.
Consultations have been held with all the organisations that made submissions on the original study of a CEP with Chile published in October 2002;
Contact has also been made with a large number of companies involved in trade with Chile and Singapore as well as other stakeholders. If you have not been contacted and you do have an interest please contact us.
Ongoing public input into the CEP negotiations is welcome and engagement with interested parties will continue throughout the negotiating process.
Regular updates on the negotiations will also be posted on the MFAT website.
