On 6 October 2015, negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement were successfully concluded.
TPP is New Zealand’s biggest ever free trade deal and will deliver significant benefits for our country.
It involves 12 Asia-Pacific countries, which together account for 36 per cent of the world’s economy. It means New Zealand will now have Free Trade Agreements covering our top five trading partners – Australia, China, the United States, Japan and Korea.
TPP is a very positive agreement for New Zealand. It further improves access to international markets, which supports our exporters to grow and create new jobs, and diversify their businesses overseas.
TPP means:
- 800 million potential customers for New Zealand goods and services.
- NZ’s economy is estimated to benefit by at least $2.7 billion a year by 2030.
- It will save $259 million a year in tariffs for New Zealand exporters.
- It will support more jobs and higher incomes, and allow New Zealand exporters to sell more products and services to the world.
- $28 billion of New Zealand goods and services were exported to TPP countries last year – that’s around 40 per cent of New Zealand’s overall exports.
- Tariffs will be eliminated on 93 per cent of New Zealand’s exports to the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico and Peru.
Not being in TPP would put the New Zealand economy and our businesses at a competitive disadvantage compared to other countries.
TPP, like any free trade agreement, will go through New Zealand’s Parliamentary processes and is expected to come into force within two years.
(Source Beehive, John Key, Tim Groser)
