New Zealand hosts FIT Partnership Ministerial Meeting

It is one of the largest and most diverse trade-focused gatherings to be hosted in New Zealand in many years. Ministers representing more than 16 small and medium-sized trade-dependent economies will come together to work on practical support for businesses, removing trade frictions, bolstering trade resilience and reinforcing global trade rules.

The 17 July meeting agenda includes:

• Confronting non-tariff barriers (NTBs) – Unjustified red tape, processes and regulations that make it harder and more costly for our exporters to access international markets. It’s estimated NTBs impact an estimated $9 billion of New Zealand trade, hitting the primary sector hardest.
• Promoting paperless and digital trade – This helps business reduce costs, increase productivity and create new opportunities, particularly for small to medium-sized enterprises.
• Tackling subsidies – Certain forms of subsidies can distort trade and investment flows, suppress global prices, and disadvantage competitive exporters. Addressing them is essential to restoring fair competition 
• Reinforcing the global trade rules and systems that deliver a level playing field, market access, give exporters certainty and transparency.

The FIT Partnership is not a substitute for the multilateral trading system – it is a catalyst for it. By bringing together agile, trade-dependent economies, FIT Partnership turns shared challenges into practical solutions and helps strengthen the rules and relationships that underpin global trade.