Further details have been revealed on the New Zealand-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, which is racing towards its final completion.
Farmers Weekly recently revealed that dairy sales will be greatly liberalised when the agreement is reached, probably with tariffs reducing to zero over several years.
In a subsequent statement, the UK Government has added honey and apple sales to dairy as a beneficiary of a deal, and wine exporters would also get better access.
Tariffs on British exports to NZ, such as motor vehicles, would lose the tariffs when they enter this country.
This information came out in a statement from the British trade secretary Liz Truss, speaking in London on Monday.
She says teams of negotiators were working around the clock to get a deal signed, a position confirmed by NZ officials.
Both sides had set the end of August for a deadline, which has greatly increased the pressure of work for negotiators.
However, there is a chance the deadline might be missed by a week, possibly because of stress caused by the Covid lockdown.
Speaking in London, Truss said both countries were fans of each other’s products.
She said trade between the two was worth 2.3 billion pounds sterling annually, that’s $NZ4.6 billion.
The deal is seen as an important forerunner for British accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.
Good relations with existing members like NZ are seen as essential for progress to be made on this front.
The FTA with NZ also matches British public statements that 80% of all its trade will be under FTAs by the end of next year.
