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EU ambassador Bernard Savage at Fieldays.
Britain's top diplomat in New Zealand strongly supports an NZ/EU free trade agreement.
Negotiations for this hoped-for FTA begin this week in Wellington.
UK High Commissioner Laura Clarke told Rural News that the UK has championed an NZ/EU free trade deal, seeing it as complementing such a deal with Britain.
She says when Britain is free to negotiate an FTA of its own (after Brexit), NZ will be top priority for an FTA deal.
Formal negotiations for an NZ/EU FTA will begin when a delegation headed by EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström arrives on Thursday. They will sit down with Trade Minister David Parker and other ministers.
Officials from the EU and NZ will also meet then to set the agenda for detailed negotiations in Brussels in July.
UK High Commissioner Laura Clarke says Britain supports such a deal because of its strong links with NZ -- “people links, business links, trade links”.
“We want to make the most of those. We already have trade policy dialogue between the UK and NZ so we are looking to prepare the ground for a post-Brexit trade agreement with NZ,” she says.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Ambassador to NZ, Breandan O Caollai, is also optimistic about NZ getting an FTA with the EU.
The prospects of a deal are very good, he says.
The EU depends on trading with other partners and, from Ireland’s point of view, trade with NZ will be important to Ireland after Brexit.
Although some conflicts will arise, everyone gains more out of free trade agreements than they lose, he says. Free trade is the way the world global economy works and it works very well for Ireland and NZ.
“Issues will need to be ironed out, but the overall prospect favours an FTA; the opportunities will outweigh the difficulties and there is determination to make sure this FTA goes through,” he told Rural News.
“The EU will be anxiously looking to other parts of the world to make sure the trade bloc maintains its strength.”
Ambassador O Caollai says the whole future of agriculture in the EU is a very political issue, but he notes that Ireland is progressive and depends less on agriculture than previously.
“Overall, the thrust of Ireland is for free trade.”
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