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The India-NZ FTA discussions have progressed to round 7 when a team led by J Dadoo, Joint Secretary, India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry met their NZ counterparts led by Nigel Fyfe from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT). After a gruelling few days of discussions in Wellington, the team headed to Auckland where they visited some businesses and attended a dinner meeting organised by India New Zealand Business Council (INZBC) and supported by MFAT.
This dinner meeting was attended by the Executive Committee members of INZBC along with the participants of the recent Prime Minister’s trip to India. Prominent attendees were, Derek McCormack- Vice Chancellor of AUT, Acting High Commissioner Sanjay Verma, Sarah Paterson from Fonterra, Trace Houpapa Chair of the federation of Maori Authorities, Andy Warren from Bloomz NZ, Susan Huria from Airways Corporation, Michael Orton from Ebus, Cary Heslop from Lanzatech, Vipan Garg from National Steel, Roshan Nauhria from Nauhria Precast, Anand & Sarita Kumble from Pictor, Jacob Manothra from Zindia, Dinesh Naik – KPMG, Rober Barker from NZIFS, Wenceslaus Anthony Chair of INZBC, Sunil Kaushal from ANZ Bank, Bhav Dhillon from Cemix and Sameer Handa from Patton.
Bhav Dhillon, Executive Committee member of INZBC highlighted the importance of the meeting and said that the evening would be a fruitful deliberation for the delegates. This high powered function was formally opened by Robert Barker head of the Christchurch chapter of INZBC who shared his experiences of doing business with India on the back of over 30 visits to India in the past years.. Ideas on log exports, technology transfer in horticultural sector, biotechnology partnerships, healthcare solutions, car recycling, building technologies, ICT sector partnerships, cold chain technology and partnerships in the burgeoning dairy sector of India were discussed and deliberated.
Mr Dadoo summed up the discussion by commenting that economic bonding between the two countries is bound to happen and he can see increased economic cooperation happening in the future. He raised his concern about the current balance of trade which is in New Zealand’s favour by over $500m and hoped this would improve and bring equal benefits to both countries.
He urged Fonterra to develop more enduring partnerships with leading Indian dairy cooperatives like Amul, Mother Dairy and NDDB. He was particularly impressed by his visit to Lanzatech and saw a great future for these technologies in India. He commented that certain items would be fraught with socio-political sensitivities – which could be overcome to a certain extent and hopefully make this FTA workable. He said that he was pleased to see diversified businesses present and also to know directly from the businesses the desired out come from the FTA with India.
Nigel Fyfe also gave an update on where things are from MFAT’s perspective.
Pictured: JK Dadoo from India and Nigel Fyfe Chief Negotiator from NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Anthony Wenceslaus, Chair of INZBC gave an emotionally charged speech and called upon both the lead negotiators to work constructively towards achieving a high quality FTA in the best interests of both countries. He further emphasised the importance of INZBC which is working tirelessly to create people to people and business to business linkages between the two countries.
Pictured: Sanjay Verma Acting HC of India to NZ, Anthony Wenceslaus Chair INZBC, Derek McCormack Vice Chancellor AUT, JK Dadoo – Chief Negotiator India and Jacob Manothra from Zindia.