RIYADH, 10 September 2006 — Foreign ministers from the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states have agreed to commence negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with New Zealand, Jim Howell New Zealand’s ambassador announced here yesterday.
“I am extremely pleased to witness this new step in New Zealand’s relationship with the Kingdom and the GCC,” Howell said, stressing that this new move will pave the way for stronger links between New Zealand and Gulf States.
The decision follows a visit by New Zealand Trade Minister Phil Goff to the region in March when he gained support from ministerial counterparts in the Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates for the negotiations. Howell pointed out that the chance to remove constraints on trade with the Gulf States is important for New Zealand.
The six GCC states (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman) collectively took $720 million in exports from New Zealand last year.
“That makes the region only a slightly smaller market for us than a major market like Germany,” said Howell. “Gulf countries are important suppliers of oil and petrochemical products to New Zealand and are also important markets for a wide range of New Zealand’s exports of goods and services.”
In a statement issued on the occasion, Goff said: “An FTA is important because cutting tariffs and other barriers to trade faced by New Zealand exporters will strengthen and protect the competitiveness of our exports in a large and rapidly developing market. Our traditional big exports, like dairy and meat, should stand to benefit, but so too will areas such as forestry, horticulture and manufacturing. Emerging and rapidly growing areas such as ICT, construction materials, medical equipment and education also stand to gain.”
