By Admin 
India-New Zealand FTA: Free-trade deal (India-New-Zealand FTA) has been confirmed between India and New Zealand. This will obviously boost bilateral trade between the two countries. However, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters is not liking this deal. He has called it ‘nonsense’. Criticizing the FTA between India and New Zealand, Peters said that ‘it is neither free nor fair.’ Along with this, he warned that whenever this deal goes to the Parliament, his party will oppose it.
What is the Foreign Minister regretting about?
Posting on social media platform He said the deal was bad for New Zealand because it had ‘a lot to lose’, especially on immigration. He said that New Zealand citizens are not getting anything special in return from this deal, including dairy.
Let us tell you that in this deal between the two countries, India has kept dairy products (milk, ghee, butter, cheese, cream) out of the scope of FTA, keeping the interest of the farmers at the forefront. That means the tariff on this will not be reduced. Union Minister Piyush Goyal has also said that India will never open its dairy sector for open trade because it supports the livelihood of about 70 million small farmers.
No compromise with dairy sector
New Zealand is one of the world’s largest exporters of dairy products. New Zealand has been trying to increase its reach in India’s dairy products market for a long time. There are lakhs of small dairy farmers in India. In such a situation, no compromise can be made on this sector so that there is no impact on the security of this sector and the livelihood of these farmers.
Keeping this in mind, the trade of dairy products between the two countries is limited. Dairy exports from New Zealand to India in FY2025 stood at only $1.07 million. This included milk and cream worth $0.40 million, natural honey worth $0.32 million, mozzarella cheese worth $0.18 million, butter worth $0.09 million and skimmed milk worth $0.08 million. The trade deal between India and America is also stuck on this issue. America wants India to open its dairy products market for them, but India is against it.
benefit to the common man
This free-trade deal between India and New Zealand will directly impact the pockets of the common man. With this, many things coming from New Zealand will become cheaper, including many fresh fruits like apple and kiwi, wool and its products, furniture, wood etc. Under the agreement, there will be no tax on 95 percent of the goods coming from New Zealand to India. In such a situation, this is a great opportunity for New Zealand businessmen to increase their reach in the Indian markets. Also, if foreign products become cheaper for the middle class families of our country, they will also get relief.
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