Hon Damien O’Connor

Associate Minister for Trade and Export Growth

10 November 2017

Minister to attend RCEP talks in Manila

Associate Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor is travelling to Manila, Philippines this week to participate in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Preparatory Ministerial meeting, in the margins of the East Asia Summit.

The meeting will occur two days before Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern participates in the RCEP Leaders’ Summit alongside her counterparts from other RCEP Participating Countries.

“RCEP is important for New Zealand. If it is successfully completed, the agreement would cover 56 per cent, or NZ$40 billion, of New Zealand’s total goods and services exports and 7 out of our top 10 export markets.

“I will stress that the negotiations must deliver a modern, comprehensive and high-quality agreement, which contains commercially meaningful and credible outcomes, consistent with Leaders’ original vision for the negotiations.

The RCEP negotiations were launched in November 2012 and comprise 16 countries: New Zealand, Australia, the 10 countries of ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations), China, India, Japan and South Korea. New Zealand hosted a RCEP negotiating round in Auckland in June 2016,” says Minister O’Connor.

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