Feedback on the New Zealand–India Free Trade Agreement Legislation

When we made our submission on the India–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, we warned that the deal reached well beyond tariffs into investment, immigration, labour mobility, digital payments and New Zealand’s future ability to make its own policy decisions.

Those concerns are now surfacing during Parliament’s consideration of the legislation needed to implement the agreement.

The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee recently questioned officials about whether India could suspend trade concessions if New Zealand failed to make sufficient progress towards promoting US$20 billion ($33 billion) of investment into India. Despite repeated questioning from the committee chair, no clear answer emerged.

Submissions on the implementing legislation close Sunday, 19 July, giving New Zealanders another opportunity to raise concerns about what the agreement could mean in practice.

We will be submitting again this time on the legislation which is to enact the “effect” of the terms of the treaty agreed. Our submission can be viewed by following this link and you are welcome to use any aspect you find useful to comment on the legislation proposed.

You will need to visit the NZ Parliament website and either upload your feedback as a word doc or PDF or type directly into the official form.