Overview
On 31 October 2025, New Zealand Minister for Trade Todd McClay, Singapore Minister for Sustainability and the Environment and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations Grace Fu and Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Alberto van Klaveren announced the start of negotiations(external link) for a new trade and investment initiative called the Green Economy Partnership Agreement (GEPA). The launch of negotiations follows a year of discussions by a joint working group established in November 2024.
Globally, trade and investment policies are adapting rapidly to support the green economic transition. This change creates both challenges and opportunities for New Zealand businesses, and for our own environmental, climate change, and trade policy goals.
The GEPA negotiations will see New Zealand working with our partners on a new set of trade commitments and initiatives to harness new economic opportunities for New Zealand, enhance our ability to meet climate and other environmental objectives and mitigate the challenges of navigating the green transition for producers, exporters and investors.
Concept
New Zealand, Chile and Singapore are frequent partners in pioneering trade initiatives including the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (P4) and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA).
The GEPA joins these initiatives and will be an enabling framework for trade and investment opportunities in key sectors that either have competitive sustainability credentials or advance climate and environmental solutions. It will comprise a mix of trade rules, commitments, cooperation initiatives and projects and will be a living agreement that evolves over time.
Scope of negotiations
In line with the ‘living agreement’ concept, the scope of GEPA negotiations will evolve over time in line with technological developments and changes in regulatory approaches globally. Initial negotiations are expected to cover:
- Trade in environmental goods and services, including emerging technologies such as hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel.
- Interoperability of environmental credentials, green standards and labelling for exported goods.
- Sustainable finance and green investment.
- Trading of ‘intangible environmental attributes’ such as carbon and nature credits, as well as other forms of credits or certificates.
- Collaboration on decarbonisation and sustainable practices in key sectors, starting with agriculture and food systems, construction services, technologies and building materials, and circular economy/recycling and plastics.