McClay attends regional trade meetings in Hanoi

Trade Minister Todd McClay has arrived in Vietnam for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting of Trade Ministers, where he will also co-chair a meeting on the next steps for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The meeting follows a successful visit to Japan with Prime Minister Bill English where Japan and New Zealand firmly committed to work together to progress TPP11.

“This TPP meeting will be important for the future of the Agreement. This is a chance for the 11 remaining countries to collectively decide upon a process for next steps,” Mr McClay says.

“New Zealand recently joined Japan in ratifying TPP because the Agreement still has real value to the Asia-Pacific both strategically and economically.

“The Asia-Pacific is the world’s fastest growing region, it consumes more than 70 per cent of New Zealand’s exports. That’s a big part of why fighting for a common set of high-quality rules that will secure lower tariffs and better access for our exporters is so important”.

Mr McClay will also meet bilaterally with a number of key regional trading partners, participate in the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting and attend a separate meeting with Ministers from Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries.

“APEC will be an excellent opportunity to progress the hard work we are putting into securing better regional trade access and get some more clarity on key issues facing the Asia-Pacific,” Mr McClay says.

“Trade Agenda 2030, our new trade strategy, sets an ambitious target of 90 per cent of goods trade being covered by free trade agreements by 2030. Enhancing our trade relationships at APEC, RCEP and With TPP is a further step towards achieving this target.”

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