FTA Milestones | ASEAN - Australia - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement

Both New Zealand and Australia have long histories of positive engagement with ASEAN as Dialogue Partners
- for New Zealand spanning back to 1975.

Relations between the parties have been strengthened by building upon areas of mutual interest and comparative advantages of both sides. Given the importance of trade and investment for the twelve ASEAN-CER economies and of the existing trade relationship between the regions, a Closer Economic Partnership is seen as a way to sustain and deepen economic links.

The shared objectives of the FTA are to:
1. Deepen and broaden cooperation in all economic fields;
2. Promote greater trade and investment flows regionally and globally;
3. Contribute to trade and investment facilitation through minimising impediments, reducing costs, and related capacity building;
4. Improve business competitiveness;
5. Narrow the developmental gap and deliver tangible benefits to all participating countries; and
6. Promote transparency of regulations and cooperation among relevant authorities.
For New Zealand there are three key inter‑related reasons beyond these shared objectives for having negotiated this agreement; offensive commercial; defensive commercial; and strategic.

Firstly, the Agreement offers the potential to deliver significant commercial commitments that meet our offensive needs in a growing and important market. Representing a market of more than 566 million people and accounting for more than US$1,400 billion in global trade, the ASEAN economies are an increasingly important destination for New Zealand service suppliers (including education, engineering and environmental services) and outward investment.

Secondly, there are defensive commercial interests to protect. ASEAN has already concluded FTA negotiations with a number of New Zealand's competitors in the region (Korea, Japan and China). An FTA will allow New Zealand companies to maintain a competitive position in this important market.

Thirdly, there are strategic reasons for negotiating the AANZFTA agreement. It is important to our broader and longer term interests in engagement and interaction with the region as a whole. If New Zealand wants to be an integral part of a more highly integrated set of trade and economic arrangements in East Asia and do what we can to ensure that regional integration remains open and outward looking, being part of the region through the AANZFTA agreement is important.
The agreement to move to FTA negotiations followed four years of economic and technical cooperation under the AFTA-CER Closer Economic Partnership agreed in 2000.

At a Summit meeting in Vientiane, Laos on 30 November 2004, ASEAN, Australian and New Zealand leaders agreed to launch negotiations for an FTA.

It was agreed at the outset that the FTA would be a "single undertaking", simultaneously spanning goods, services and investment, as well as the other subjects covered in a modern FTA such as intellectual property. Negotiations began in early 2005 with the initial goal of being concluded within two years and fully implemented within ten years.

The first negotiating round in was held in Manila, the Philippines in March 2005. 15 more rounds were held before Trade Ministers' substantive agreement was reached at the ASEAN Economic Minister's meeting in Singapore in September 2008. The formal signing of the agreement took place on 27 February 2009 at the ASEAN Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand. New Zealand's Minister of Trade Tim Groser signed the agreement for New Zealand at the meeting.
As with all of New Zealand's trade agreements, the AANZFTA agreement is designed to remove barriers to trade between New Zealand and the our trading partners. Through this FTA, it is hoped that businesses from New Zealand, Australia and throughout South East Asia will be able to expand their existing commercial linkages and further progress regional integration.

For this to happen and to further progress the AANZFTA agreement, a partnership between government and business is essential to enable the FTA work in practice following signature and entry into force.

Implementing the AANZFTA agreement is based on a whole-of-government approach to maximising the benefits for New Zealand. As has been the approach taken in negotiating the agreement, a range of Government agencies have a role to play in firstly helping stakeholders and businesses understand the outcomes and then putting the agreement into practice so these outcomes can be realised.

This website and the guides to the agreement that it contains are the first step in helping people to understand what this FTA means for New Zealand and the potential that it offers. From this point on however making the agreement work relies on businesses taking up the challenge of engaging with and deepening their relations with the region.

In early 2009 the New Zealand government will be holding a series of regional seminars in the main centres of New Zealand. These seminars are designed to help inform all New Zealanders on the key outcomes of the agreement and how businesses might look to take advantage of the opportunities it presents. These seminars help inform the required domestic parliamentary processes that were set in motion by the signature of the agreement in Hua Hin, Thailand in February 2009 at the ASEAN Summit.

Following the signature of the agreement at the ASEAN Summit, the text of the agreement and associated instruments along with the National Interest Analysis were formally presented to Parliament for consideration by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee, which may call for public submissions. At this point the documents were all made available to the public also. Following this process, and the passage of the small number of legislative amendments required for New Zealand to implement the agreement domestically, New Zealand will be able to issue its note to the other Parties indicating completion of its necessary domestic legal procedures for entry into force. The Parties have indicated that they would like to see the agreement enter into force on 1 July 2009.