Minister Piyush Goyal meets NZ's Damian O'Connor for bilateral talks

India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and New Zealand's Minister for Trade and Export Development Damian O'Connor attended a bilateral meeting in New Delhi on 28 August 2023.

The meeting is part of the continued effort of the two governments to develop a broad-based relationship, building on the highly successful meeting between the Prime Ministers of the two countries in Port Moresby on 22 May 2023.

• There is a strong relationship between the citizens of the two countries, involving many activities such as commerce, education and tourism.
• The importance of the annual meeting of the Joint Trade Committee (JTC) established under the India-New Zealand Trade Agreement of 1986 and regular cooperation at senior level was also acknowledged.
• The Ministers of the two countries agreed to hold meetings on a regular basis as convenient for bilateral discussions on trade and investment issues and cooperative activities.
• The Ministers of both countries acknowledged the following commitment towards strengthening trade and economic ties:

• Both countries intend to test new and innovative approaches to economic partnership.
• New initiatives should focus on encouraging, facilitating and coordinating collaboration of technology and expertise for genuine mutual benefit.
• Opportunities should be explored in each other's markets, which are beneficial to the businesses of both the countries.
• Focused on increasing cooperation between the two countries, with emphasis on involving relevant government departments and private sector officials, wherever appropriate.

Other areas of trade and cooperation between the two sides:

• A comprehensive agreement was reached for joint stakeholder consultations held with industries on both sides and formation of working groups on topics of mutual interest.
  • Potential innovative technological cooperation between the two sides in the field of agriculture and horticulture including kiwi fruit, pharmaceuticals, processing, storage and transportation etc.
• On trade facilitation, the Ministers acknowledged a joint effort to find a viable alternative to allowing the import of timber logs from New Zealand.
  • Both welcomed the progress being made by New Zealand on India's request to allow two additional steam heat treatment facilities in India for the export of mangoes, as well as the commencement of Indian mango exports to New Zealand.
• Acknowledged the importance of improving air connectivity between the two countries, and welcomed the finalisation of the Memorandum of Understanding to further liberalise the bilateral air services agreement between the two countries.
• The Ministers welcomed the initial discussions between the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Payments New Zealand regarding the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system and agreed that the two sides should continue to discuss this issue.
• They agreed that the introduction of UPI in New Zealand would facilitate ease of doing business between the two countries and also promote trade and tourism.
• The Ministers recognized the excellent cooperation between India and New Zealand as part of the membership of the two countries in the Indo-Pacific Economic Architecture for prosperity in supply chains, clean economy and fair economy pillars and strong, inclusive, transparent and sustainable development through regional institutions. Acknowledged the role of both countries in informing focused economic and trade regulations.
• The Ministers intended to review the progress made by the Working Groups and their recommendations at regular intervals.