Minister for Trade and Investment Todd McClay has departed New Zealand for a trade mission visit to China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Singapore and Australia.
In China, Minister McClay is attending the final days of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) – the world’s largest – and will promote New Zealand’s unique ‘Grass-Fed’ standard. This will be followed by a visit to Beijing for political discussions.
The Minister will then travel to the UAE for meetings, following the entry into force of the New Zealand-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in August.
“Our trade agreement with the UAE provides exporters with greater options and better access into this growing market,” Mr McClay says.
Mr McClay will then travel to India to hold Ministerial trade negotiations with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi. This follows Minister Goyal’s visit to New Zealand this week.
Whilst in India, Mr McClay will also lead a forestry and wood processing trade mission and speak at the trade Partnership Summit, an annual global conference that brings together world leaders, policymakers, and industry executives, hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
“This will be my sixth visit and reaffirms our commitment to negotiating a high-quality trade agreement with India opening up access to their 1.4 billion consumers during this term of Parliament,” Mr McClay says.
He will then travel to Singapore as a founding member to join 12 other countries for the first in-person Ministerial meeting of the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership (FIT-P).
In Australia, Mr McClay will attend the annual Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) ministerial meeting and the first CPTPP- EU and CPTPP- ASEAN Dialogues.
“The partnership represents more than 15% of global GDP and includes some of the world’s most dynamic economies,” he said.
