In addition, India and New Zealand signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Monday. The FTA is expected to come into effect by the end of this year.
As a result, most Indian goods will enter New Zealand duty-free. This will increase the exports of various goods, like textiles, leather goods, electronic goods, chemical products, and engineering goods.
If the services sector is included in the FTA, Indian youth will be able to take up employment in more than 100 occupations. Moreover, New Zealand will export apples, kiwis, and honey to India at half the earlier tariff rates.
The apple and kiwi fruit will be imported from New Zealand at fixed prices. New Zealand will assist Indian farmers in increasing their productivity.
In the last three and a half years, India has signed FTAs with seven developed countries. After signing the FTA with New Zealand's Trade and Investment Minister, Todd McLay, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced that they would soon sign FTAs with the EU and the United States. Negotiations on the trade agreement between India and New Zealand began just nine months ago.
He clarified that, unlike other countries, agriculture and dairy are not included in the FTA with New Zealand.
Currently, New Zealand's trade with India is only $2.4 billion, of which merchandise trade is only $1.3 billion. After the implementation of the FTA, the target is to increase this trade to $5 billion by 2030.
New Zealand's total population is approximately 5.5 million, but its per capita income is $52,000. New Zealand imports $46 billion.