Key Outcomes

The Trade in Goods chapter provides the basis for the liberalisation of customs duties. The chapter text provides a mechanism for the Parties to consider accelerating, or broadening the scope of liberalisation set out in the annexed tariff schedules. It contains key provisions common across many FTAs, including incorporating key WTO provisions relating to national treatment, administrative fees and formalities, customs valuations, import and export restrictions, import licencing, and non-tariff measures. 

It also provides for duty-free temporary admission of goods, of commercial samples, and goods that re-enter after repair or alteration, and reiterates the parties’ commitments not to apply agricultural export subsidies. The chapter also commits to sharing data on FTA preference utilisation and establishes contact points through which a Party can request detailed information and consultations relating to any measure it considers may materially affect trade in goods between the Parties, with a view to resolving any concerns about the measure. 

The chapter also establishes a Committee on Trade in Goods for monitoring the implementation of the chapter and promoting bilateral trade, promptly addressing non-tariff barriers to trade in goods, and ensuring future tariff transpositions do not alter the Parties’ tariff commitments. 

Modern rules of origin provisions have been secured for New Zealand exporters in the NZ–India FTA. The NZ–India FTA rules of origin are aligned with New Zealand’s existing FTAs, making it easier for New Zealand exporters to understand and comply with the Agreement. The chapter is forward-looking, promoting the use of electronic systems and paperless trade to further enhance efficiency and enables approved exporters to self declare their goods from entry into force, with potential to expand self declaration out to all exporters or producers following a review after 5 years.

The CPTF chapter will strengthen customs cooperation between the Parties and ensure that customs procedures are applied in a manner that is predictable, consistent, and transparent. It ensures information on customs laws and requirements is published online and easily accessible, and establishes access to advance rulings for origin, classification, and valuation purposes. Collectively, these measures simplify compliance and give traders greater certainty and predictability, enabling them to make well informed decisions in their trade activities.

The Chapter also provides for enhanced trade facilitation measures that will reduce costs for New Zealand exporters through streamlined electronic processing and faster border clearance. Provided all regulatory requirements have been met, goods will be released by customs within 48 hours of arrival, with a further commitment to endeavour to release perishable goods and express consignments within 24 hours.

The Trade Remedies chapter maintains WTO rules which will apply to the imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties and to the application of global safeguards on trade between the Parties. These rules also protect the interests of New Zealand exporters faced with trade remedy actions by the Indian government. The chapter also provides both parties with the opportunity to apply a Bilateral Safeguard Mechanism (BSM) in the event of serious injury or threat of serious injury from an increase in imports due to tariff eliminations and tariff reductions under the FTA.

India and New Zealand have agreed a comprehensive forward leading Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) chapter. The agreement promotes the use of enhanced cooperation, risk assessments, equivalence and regionalisation to help further facilitate trade in primary products.  It strongly promotes the recognition of international standards, and provides for the non-discriminatory issuance of import permits without undue delay, along with a transparent border rejection appeals procedures.  It sets up regular meetings to discuss any implementation matter and to initiate and conclude further SPS-based implementing arrangements including those providing for simplified certification, expedited border clearances, and reduced sanitary import permit requirements.  It also provides for an overarching committee to consider and conclude implementing arrangements on any other non-tariff measure that is jointly regulated by the relevant competent authorities.  While the agreement currently exempts the chapter from dispute settlement processes (DSP), it provides for enhanced timebound technical consultations where both sides are obligated to find solutions, and the application of DSP is required to be formally reviewed in 4 years. Like all technical chapters, the most important aspect is the commitment both parties are making to work more cooperatively together to find solutions to help further promote safe trade.

The objective of the Technical Barriers to Trade chapter is to facilitate trade in goods by reducing unnecessary barriers to trade in order to lower costs for exporters. The chapter includes various mechanisms to support such outcomes such as improved transparency on technical regulations, commitments on marking and labelling, and greater cooperation on matters of mutual interest relating to standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures. 

Medical Devices and Pharmaceuticals Annexes. 

• These Annexes are designed to reduce unnecessary regulatory barriers in the approval of medical devices and facilitate collaboration on relevant international initiatives.

Wine, Whisky, and Distilled Spirits Annex

• The Annex covers the full range of New Zealand’s wine, including wines under 0.5% alc/vol. It will provide exporters confidence that they can use ‘wine’ as a product name for the full scope of their products and increases clarity on what exporters can put on labels for wine destined for India. The annex also includes transitional provisions including for stock in transit should regulations change, as well as provisions on certification. Crucially, the Annex establishes a Working Group to provide a forum for both parties to discuss, progress, and aim to arrive at solutions on issues of interest. For New Zealand this includes topics such winemaking practices and supplementary labelling. 

Organics

• An interim organics mutual recognition arrangement (IMRA) has been agreed as a transitional measure until such time that a full assessment of each other’s organic technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures can be made and a wider bilateral mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) agreed.  The IMRA provides for two-way trade in unprocessed and processed organic horticultural products (including wine) from day one based on certification it meets a mutually recognised third country’s standard. This will be the first time New Zealand has access to the Indian market for organic products, and should provide for additional opportunities particularly for our apple, kiwifruit, processed food and wine export sectors.  

The Investment Cooperation and Promotion Chapter provides for broad cooperation between New Zealand and India in an effort to deepen the trade and investment relationship. The chapter sets out cooperation activities that may take place such as trade delegations, workshops, and events to promote two way investment and build the investment relationship between our two countries. 

The chapter also includes a commitment for New Zealand to promote investment into India with the aim to increase private sector investment by US$20 billion over 15 years.  To facilitate New Zealand investments, India will establish a bespoke ‘New Zealand Investment Desk’ to assist New Zealand investors with any issues that arise across the investment life-cycle. This commitment is part of a balanced and commercially meaningful outcome across the wider agreement. It applies only to private sector investment.

The chapter is not subject to dispute settlement, including Investor-State Dispute-Settlement, though there is a ‘remedial’ process available to India.

New Zealand’s services trade interests have also been secured, including through India making commitments on almost 100 additional sectors above its WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) commitments, and crucially a most favoured nation (MFN) commitment which ensures that we will automatically benefit from any future improvements to services access extended to other Indian FTA partners.  

Sectors of interest to New Zealand, which India has committed, include engineering services, environmental service, tertiary and adult education, audio-visual services.

The Trade in Services chapter was accompanied by annexes on financial services, telecommunications, professional services, health mobility and traditional medicines, and the movement of natural persons. In combination these annexes provided robust and comprehensive rules to ensure New Zealand service suppliers will be able to access the India market on conditions no less favourable than our trade competitors, and in many sectors, than domestic Indian services providers. In particular, the health mobility and traditional medicine annex sets up a process for Rongoa Maori practitioners to engage with the Indian market, while the financial services annex contains ambitious disciplines for the financial services sector, including rules to help advance FinTech and e-payment systems, including ambitious rules on the processing and location of financial data. 

Similar to the Trade in Services chapter, the Movement of natural persons (MNP) annex and commitments sets in place the rules and eligibility criteria that will allow skilled services providers to travel to and from each country – ensuring we are able to access the best of India’s skilled workers, while also opening the Indian market to our young, entrepreneurial service suppliers looking to expand into the Indian market. This includes reciprocal contractual service supplier (CSS), and intra-corporate transferee commitments that will allow New Zealanders access to the Indian market. 

In addition, New Zealand has made temporary employment entry commitments with India for occupations that are highly skilled or iconic to India. New Zealand has agreed to provide the equivalent of 1,667 three-year temporary employment entry (TEE) visas per annum (capped at a maximum of 5,000 at any point in time).  This number is less than 6% of the average number of total skilled visas issued each year by New Zealand and around 17% of those issued to Indian citizens each year.  

Of the 1,677 TEE visas, 1,466 visas are aside for 13 skilled occupations, drawn from the Immigration NZ’s ‘Green List’ of occupations that have a skills shortage. The other 200 visas per annum would be issued in ‘iconic’ Indian occupations (Yoga, music, chefs and ayurvedic practitioners).  New Zealand has also given India a working holiday scheme with up to 1,000 places per annum, has provided Indian students with the right to work for up to 20 hours per week while studying (current practice is 25 hours per week) and to work for a set period, ranging from two years for those graduating with a bachelor’s degree, to four years for PhDs after they have complete their programmes of study.

Across the services chapter, and within the commitments New Zealand has made to India, we have ensured that New Zealand retains the necessary policy exceptions to regulate into the future.  This includes the safeguards employed in the movement of natural persons commitments, which are designed to protect the labour market from a surplus of oversees workers impacting any one occupation or sector. 

The Competition Chapter promotes fair competition and consumer welfare in order to facilitate trade and investment flows between New Zealand and India and support the efficient functioning of each Party’s market. The Chapter requires both Parties to maintain and enforce competition laws that address anti-competitive practices and ensure that these laws apply to all commercial activities, including public enterprises. It also enables cooperation between the Parties’ competition authorities on enforcement and policy matters, and provides procedural safeguards to ensure transparency and fairness.

This chapter confirms important intellectual property (IP) rules from TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and other international IP agreements. These provide greater transparency and certainty for our innovation focused exporters, while also recognising the interests of intellectual property users and the public. The chapter also provides opportunities for greater cooperation with India on IP issues including issues related to genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.

Under a Side Letter, we have agreed to undertake a review of GI protections with a view to matching protections we have agreed with the EU, including to allow for protections of individual GI names. The review will start on signature of the agreement and be completed within 6 months of the agreement entering into force. The public will have a chance to have input, including in relation to the protection of any nominated names.

The objective of the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapter is for New Zealand and India to work collaboratively to strengthen both countries’ Trade and Sustainability credentials, while upholding their international commitments. The parties agree to promote international trade in such a way as to contribute towards broad-based, sustained and inclusive economic growth, social development, high levels of environmental protection, progress towards long-term strategies for transition, and to work to integrate and reflect this in their trade relationship. 

The Chapter includes a range of reciprocal trade and environment and trade and labour commitments, including that neither party will use their labour or environmental standards to restrict trade, or to lower these for trade advantage. It establishes a Trade and Sustainable Development Committee which will review and monitor the implementation and operation of the Chapter and its mutually beneficial cooperation activities.

The SMEs chapter follows a similar approach to the equivalent chapters in our other FTAs. It provides for cooperation between the Parties to enhance the ability of SMEs to benefit from the opportunities arising under the Agreement.

The chapter also provides for key information about the Agreement to be available online. This includes information that would be useful for SMEs interested in taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the Agreement.

The chapter establishes contact points that are responsible for exchanging information, including sharing best practice in supporting SMEs, facilitating communication between the Parties and coordinating cooperation initiatives.

The chapter is not subject to dispute settlement.

The Economic Cooperation and Technical Assistance Chapter provides opportunities to grow durable, long term, and mutually beneficial relationships between India and New Zealand including through dedicated cooperation in areas of Indian interest.   As part of this comprehensive chapter on cooperation, an “Agriculture Productivity Partnership” has been established to drive cooperation activities across multiple sectors. A Committee on Economic Cooperation and Technical Assistance has also been created to progress cooperation in non-agricultural areas.

Working Groups will be established led by the relevant government agencies of each party, which can include experts from outside of Government. These Working Groups will ensure cooperation projects are robust, led by experts and specifically targeted where they are required. Areas of interest identified for potential Working Groups include forestry, horticulture, apiculture and honey, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, wine, traditional knowledge and medicine, tourism, audio visual production and sports. 

This chapter provides a framework to pursue mutual cooperation to enable and advance the Parties’ economic and cultural aspirations, including Māori for New Zealand. It acknowledges the role that trade can play to address economic disparities and to enhance trade for, with, and between them. It also identifies the importance of traditional language, culture and heritage preservation and promotion to achieving economic benefit and cultural continuity.

Activities covered by the cooperation framework include information exchanges on best practices and technical matters, traditional medicine collaboration including for AYUSH and rongoā Māori practitioners, business to business exchanges including Māori and tribal enterprises and to enhance the ability for businesses to benefit from this Agreement, science, research and innovation, tourism, cultural exchanges, and trade missions. 

Traditional knowledge cooperation, preservation and protection is a strong feature of this Chapter to achieving shared economic growth, cultural preservation and sustainability, including drawing on defensive protection mechanisms that assist in preventing the misappropriation of traditional knowledge such as India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) and New Zealand’s Māori Cultural and Intellectual Property Committees. Cooperation activities can include exchanges, training, and research on traditional medicines and health standards and qualifications, biodiversity, traditional cultural expressions, arts, crafts, dance, music and tourism.

The Parties recognise that for New Zealand, cooperation under this Chapter should be implemented in a manner consistent with te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi.

The FTA includes chapters that provide for its legal and institutional framework. These chapters facilitate the structure of committees, transparency, and State-to-State settlement of disputes. They also facilitate the overall operation of the FTA including entry into force and amendment and provide for general review at regular intervals. The FTA also secures exceptions to ensure both governments can continue to regulate in the public interest. 

The Treaty of Waitangi exception, included in all New Zealand’s contemporary FTAs, allows the New Zealand Government to fulfil its obligations under te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi.