NZ signs FTA with Malaysia, a $1B export market

Malaysia signs FTA with NZ, helping boost ties with $1B export market

Oct. 27 (BusinessWire) – Malaysia signed a free-trade agreement with New Zealand helping deepen ties with the southeast Asian nation that takes $1 billion of exports, making it the eighth-biggest market for Kiwi goods.

Trade Minister Groser signed the FTA with his Malaysia counterpart in Kuala Lumpur on Monday evening. Malay Prime Minister Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak said a drop in two-way trade this year is a “short-term setback” with an “upswing” expected for 2010, Bernama.com reported.

For New Zealand, the trade deal helps build momentum towards a broader Southeast Asian accord, which leaders signed up to at a meeting in Bangkok, along with Australia, New Zealand and India. A broader deal is some years off, Trade Minister Tim Groser says.

Prime Minister John Key said the FTA is “further evidence of our economic integration with Asia.”

“The agreement builds on the results we achieved with the 12-country ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA signed earlier this year,” he said.

New Zealand exports to Malaysia surged 80% between 2004 and 2008, double the rate for overall export growth.

Among details of the FTA, a tariff on kiwifruit imports will be phased out next year, quotas on milk shipments will be removed and tariffs on a range of items withdrawn over the next six years.

Key led a New Zealand business delegation of more than 60. He said the FTA with China is an example of how such agreements bolster trade.

(BusinessWire)

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