The New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF) has warmly welcomed today’s announcement in Brussels that the European Union and New Zealand are to start the process for negotiations towards a free trade agreement.

“The Prime Minister’s visit to Brussels has helped affirm New Zealand’s strong interest in an ambitious, high-quality, comprehensive and forward-looking free trade agreement with Europe”, said NZIBF Executive Director Stephen Jacobi.

“There is great potential to deepen and strengthen our trade, investment and economic relationship and to form new partnerships between New Zealand and European businesses into other markets in Asia,” Mr Jacobi said.

An FTA could deliver significant benefits for agriculture and food as well as technology, services such as tourism, education and environmental services, niche and high-value manufacturing, research and investment.

“We have just concluded the milestone TPP agreement.  An FTA with the EU is the next big piece in the puzzle.   We are eager to work with our European business counterparts to build the case for a high-quality agreement which will truly modernise our economic relationship,” concluded Mr Jacobi.

An NZIBF discussion paper on the prospects for an EU-New Zealand FTA is available here www.tradeworks.org.nz/towards-a-new-zealand-european-union-fta