It’s easy to understand New Zealand’s motivation for securing a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU). What’s less apparent is why the EU chose to pursue the agreement with a small and distant country, currently ranked its 50th most important trading partner.
By contrast, the EU is New Zealand’s fourth largest trading partner (after China, Australia and the US). And although the deal has been criticised by some in the dairy and meat industries, it is still expected to be worth an extra NZ$1.8 billion per annum to the New Zealand economy by 2035.
