Catherine Beard, Executive Director of ExportNZ says it is a huge relief for New Zealand exporters that the Trans Pacific Partnership deal has reached a positive conclusion, despite not getting all we wanted from dairy access.

“It is important to remember the significance of the TPP opportunity.”

“TPP represents around 40% of world GDP – and our businesses need equal access to those huge markets. New Zealand has more to gain from TPP than most countries because the highest tariffs apply to primary products, which are around two-thirds of our goods exports.”

“New Zealand has been trying for years to get competitive access to big markets like the US and Japan, and TPP will open those doors and allow our exporters to compete. ”

“TPP will eliminate tariffs on 93 per cent of New Zealand’s exports to the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and Peru, and for that result our negotiators and Trade Minister Groser must be congratulated.”

“If we want to have diversified exports – both goods and services, to participate in global value chains and to spread our risk geographically we cannot afford to sit on the side-lines of these sorts of deals.”

“Fortress New Zealand is not an option. The world has moved on, business is internationally connected and increasingly borderless and New Zealand needs to be involved”.