India, New Zealand working to address trade barriers: New Zealand envoy David Pine

NEW DELHI: Acknowledging that trade in goods between New Delhi and Wellington is "pretty low," New Zealand's High Commissioner to India, David Pine said on Tuesday that both nations are working to address the trade barriers and find ways to stimulate the demands.

The bilateral trade between India and New Zealand stood at USD 1 billion in 2022-23. India is New Zealand's 11th largest trading partner.

Speaking to ANI, Pine stated that the governments of both nations feel "a lot better could be done," highlighting that the current focus is on bringing together the business groups of two countries so that they can identify the opportunity for trade.

"Trade in goods between the two countries is still pretty low. It's about a billion dollars a year in both directions. And both governments often feel that we could be doing a lot better. So the first thing we are really focusing on is actually getting the business groups talking to each other. So getting them together into more regular habits of dialogue," he said.

India primarily imports logs and forestry products, wood pulp, wool and edible fruit and nuts from New Zealand. Indian exports to New Zealand are mostly pharmaceuticals and medications, precious metals and gems, textiles and motor vehicles and non-knitted apparel and accessories.

"We've done a lot of work on regulations that were affecting our exports of logs to India, making sure that India's very legitimate concerns that wood come to you without introducing the pests and making sure those," he said, when asked what is being done to remove the trade barriers.

"We have done similar work to allow Indian mangoes to be expected or exported to New Zealand, which I'm pretty happy about when I go home. I'll be able to have nice things," he added.

The High Commissioner informed that India and New Zealand's joint trade committee will meet soon in New Zealand to further discuss the matter of trade barriers. The dates of the meeting are being finalised, Pine told ANI.

"I think we will address systematically, how we stimulate demand. How do we make sure our business people are getting to know each other better? So we're going to try to run those joint trade committees in the future together at the same time as meetings of business organizations and really lift the profile and get people to focus on the real potential of the economic relationship," he added.

The Joint Trade Committee (JTC) was established under the 1986 India-New Zealand Trade Agreement.

Last year, in December, Union Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal held a bilateral meeting with his New Zealand counterpart Todd McClay to strengthen trade relations between India and New Zealand and explore opportunities for mutual growth and cooperation.

During the meeting, Minister Goyal and Minister McClay recognized the importance of trade facilitation and discussed measures to streamline trade processes, reduce trade barriers, and promote a more conducive environment for businesses and investors from both nations.