Local Focus: Free trade agreement beneficial to Māori business

Te Arawa fisheries is one of the many Māori-owned businesses welcoming the upgrade of the existing Free Trade Agreement between China and New Zealand.

Te Taumata chairman, Chris Karamea Insley, said the agreement was fundamental to the further growth of these businesses.

"We know that one in four jobs in this country is directly derived from trade," he said. "And therefore these free-trade negotiations are fundamentally important for Māori businesses in the region and across New Zealand."

In a post-Covid world, Asia was performing better than many other countries, providing more opportunities for Māori trade.

"As we watch the world respond to Covid-19, it's heartening to see that one of the parts of the world that seems to be recovering earlier than the others is Asia, it's China.

"So from a Māori trade point of view, it's likely that China's going to be at the front of the queue in terms of opening itself up for increased trade, so this particular agreement is hugely important."

The negotiations will be particularly beneficial for primary industries and growers of perishable goods.

"One of the challenges with these agreements in exporting products, particularly perishable products, was that they would get held at the border for an extended period of time and they would effectively go off," Insley said.

"Part of this agreement is to transit all those perishable products through customs into the Chinese market within six hours."

Trade between New Zealand and China is currently valued at 32 billion each year and it is expected to grow.

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