Supporting SMEs

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Support for SMEs

What the NZ-EU FTA Means for New Zealand's Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

The New Zealand-European Union Free Trade Agreement (NZ–EU FTA) opens up exciting new opportunities for New Zealand’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow, export, and innovate in the EU – the world’s largest single economic market. See a summary of the Agreement here.

SMEs’ Valuable Contribution

SMEs are the backbone of New Zealand’s economy. Typically defined as businesses with fewer than 20 employees, they:

generate over a quarter of New Zealand’s GDP;
account for 97% of all New Zealand businesses; and
employ approximately 31% of New Zealand’s workforce.

The majority of businesses in New Zealand and the EU are SMEs. Recognising their importance, the NZ-EU FTA includes a dedicated SME chapter (Chapter 21) to address the unique challenges SMEs face in accessing trade and investment opportunities. Read the full text of Chapter 21 here [PDF, 18 KB] (see full text for the Agreement here).

What’s in the SME Chapter?

The standalone SME chapter:

promotes transparency around trade-related information relevant to SMEs;
encourages cooperation on SME support initiatives between NZ and the EU; and
facilitates access to online resources to help SMEs understand and use the FTA.

Non-tariff measures often have a disproportionate impact on SMEs wanting to export due to a multitude of burdensome compliance requirements and increased compliance costs that can generally be more easily absorbed by large-scale businesses. This chapter helps to reduce some of those barriers.