India, New Zealand Eye Signing FTA Within 60 Days

India and New Zealand are looking to complete all trade talks for a full fledged free trade agreement within 60 days, according to New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

"We have huge expectations from the trade ministers to complete the deal now. To complete deal in 60 days would probably make the ministers go from a head full of hair to something like mine," Luxon added jovially, speaking at the India-New Zealand Economic Forum on Tuesday.

Luxon is on a visit to India from March 16-20.

As part of the pact, the two countries are also aiming to grow bilateral trade 10 times from the current level of about $1.6 billion, in the next 10 years, according to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.

"Like with every FTA, there are a few areas of sensitivity, but that can be easily managed. Agriculture, food, dairy, critical minerals, forestry, tourism, sports, renewable energy, education are some fields of common interest for us," Goyal said. While the world is going through so many problems, a successful India-New Zealand partnership could give "food for thought" to other countries, he added.

New Zealand is open to making its market a petri dish for Indian businesses, where corporates can test out products and strategies and run sandboxes for technology, Luxon said.

"We're looking forward to investments by Indian companies...and looking forward to sign the India-NZ FTA in 60 days...India is a huge opportunity for us, also a major geopolitical player," he said.

Anish Shah, managing director at Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., in his capacity as previous president of FICCI, added that there have also been proposals to send an Indian delegation of businesspersons and also start direct flights from India to the Oceania country.

"The ministers have set a goal to make this the fastest FTA negotiation ever done," Shah said.

The negotiations will start early next month, according to New Zealand's Trade Minister Todd McClay.

"The ambition is to do the trade deal quickly, we have to do a good job for India and New Zealand communities," he said.

The imposition of reciprocal tariffs by the US have no impact on the FTA negotiations, he added.

The two countries are "very aspirational about the timeline", Goyal said.

"Nobody thought we'll be able to do the FTA in 60 days with UAE. But we did it. We're aspiring to do this equally fast, maybe faster...However, no FTA is negotiated with guns to the head. There's no deadline for this FTA," he said, adding that this will be a full fledged FTA, and not a mini trade deal.

"We're on track to do a full trade deal, we'll cover the entire gamut of a full fledged economic partnership," he said.

On Sunday, coinciding with Luxon's visit, India and New Zealand officially relaunched negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement, as the former aims to rapidly set global trade partnerships that could help it achieve an ambitious transition to a developed nation by 2047.

During this visit, pacts so far have been signed in defence cooperation, horticulture, forestry and education. A Mutual Recognition Agreement as an Authorised Economic Operator was also signed between India's Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and New Zealand Customs Service to streamline trade and enhance customs cooperation.

Dairy has been a longstanding issue with respect to the two countries. In April 2010, the two countries had first started negotiating the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement to boost trade in goods, services, and investment. However, after 10 rounds of discussions, the talks stalled in February 2015.

While New Zealand has demanded greater access to India’s dairy market, India has resisted to protect its domestic industry that supports millions of farmers.

India was also reluctant to lower tariffs on New Zealand’s dairy, meat, and wine exports, while New Zealand pushed for more favourable trade terms.