Malaysia, NZ conclude free trade pact
Updated
After protracted negotiations, Malaysia and New Zealand this week signed a free trade agreement in a bid to boost bilateral trade that is worth about two billion dollars.
The deal will mean almost all duties on imports for both countries will be eliminated.
Presenter: Beverley Wang
Speakers: John Key,New Zealand Prime Minister; Najib Razak,Malaysian Prime Minister ; Stephen Toplis, Head of Research at the Bank of New Zealand
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WANG: (sound of event announcer at signing ceremony) It is a deal that is four years in the making - three years longer than New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has been in office.
Negotiations for a free trade deal between New Zealand and Malaysia began in 2005, under former prime minister Helen Clark.
But it was Mr Key, on his first visit to Malaysia as New Zealand's Prime Minister, who put his signature on the trade agreement.
KEY: Today's signing ceremony, it's a sign of the determination that we have for the relationship. I think it's worth pointing out that without a free trade agreement our two countries have exchanged trade and goods and services of around about two and a half billion (NZ) dollars ($US1.8 billion) already, and if that's what we can achieve without a free trade agreement I think it speaks volumes for what is possible between our two great countries with a free trade agreement in the years ahead."
In his own signing ceremony comments, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose country's population is nearly six times that of New Zealand's - seemed to be egging on its new free-trade partner.
NAJIB RAZAK: "The private sector of both sides will really look at the advantages of greater access to the market in New Zealand and New Zealand investors look at the market in Malaysia and beyond Malaysia. ASEAN, look at ASEAN, look at Malaysia as spring board to ASEAN, a huge market of about 550 million people and growing at quite a fast pace."
The New Zealand Government says Malaysia is the country's eight-largest export market.
Last year, trade between the two countries was close to $US2 billion.
New Zealand already has free trade deals with ASEAN and Australia, China, and other Asian countries.
Stephen Toplis, head of research at the Bank of New Zealand, says this latest free trade agreement is a sign of New Zealand's continuing efforts to break into the Asian market.
TOPLIS: A lot of these free trade agreements are with countries of Asia, and New Zealand sees its future as part of that Asian region, and that's why there's such a focus on entertaining these arrangements.
The agreement covers agriculture products - and to emphasise the point, Prime Minister John Key attended the opening of a Fonterra dairy plant outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur, during his Malaysian visit.
Economist Stephen Toplis says New Zealand has always worked to promote its agricultural exports into international trade deals.
TOPLIS: One of the issues that New Zealand faces on a global stage is the difficulty of getting agricultural production brought into free trade agreements and all of these agreements go some way to allowing free trade in agriculture, and just more generally i think the goal here for some time now has had a commitment to free trade and the benefits that brings to both nation states.
New Zealand's government says the agreement, which goes into effect in 2010, will virtually eliminate tariffs on exports by 2016.
