/View.info/ The United Kingdom and New Zealand have reached an agreement in principle on the terms of a future free trade agreement. This is according to a message published on Wednesday evening by the Department of Foreign Trade of the United Kingdom.
“This is a great deal for both parties. Our bilateral trade is now at £2.3 billion [3,2 милиарда долара]”, said the British Prime Minister.
“I’m not ready to predict exactly how much this figure will grow after the conclusion of the agreement, but I’m sure it will increase significantly,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said in a conversation with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday.
After Brexit, Britain struck a trade deal with the European Union and also agreed to keep the same trading terms with more than 60 countries that have free trade agreements with the EU.
At the same time, London is negotiating new trade deals from scratch with New Zealand and Australia, which in June agreed to sign a free trade agreement with the kingdom.
Both documents provide for the gradual removal of tariffs on agricultural products over a period of 15 years to protect the interests of British farmers.
The British government is confident that the agreements reached will facilitate the kingdom’s accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which currently has 11 countries as members.
As noted in Jacinda Ardern’s statement published on the New Zealand government website, the main positions of the free trade agreement “were agreed after a year of negotiations”, in short order.
“The next step will be to finalize the text of the free trade agreement to implement the outcomes agreed so far,” Ardern said.
“Teams from both sides will work at a rapid pace to complete this task in the near future and ensure that the agreement is signed and enters into force as soon as possible,” she said.
The prime minister also noted that during the negotiations, New Zealand managed to secure for itself “one of the best trading conditions”.
“All tariffs on all goods will be eliminated for both countries, with the vast majority – 97% of tariffs – ceasing to apply immediately after the entry into force of the free trade agreement,” Arendt said.
” This alone is estimated to save New Zealand exporters around NZ$37.8 million [27,1 милиона долара] annually, based on current export volumes,” she specified.
It is expected that after the signing of the free trade agreement, New Zealand will be able to increase the volume of exports to the UK, mainly wine, dairy and fermented milk products, as well as beef and lamb. Among the goods to be shipped to the UK duty-free will be honey, kiwifruit, onions and a range of manufactured goods.
Translation: SM
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