‘Neither free nor fair’: New Zealand Foreign Minister opposes FTA

New Delhi: New Zealand’s newly concluded free trade agreement with India has met resistance from within the governing coalition, with Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters declaring that the pact fails to serve the country’s interests. While Wellington and New Delhi announced the deal as a landmark step in their economic partnership, Peters said his party, New Zealand First, could not support it, calling the arrangement “neither free nor fair”.

In a statement outlining his objections, Peters said the agreement concedes “too much on immigration” and offers too little in return for New Zealand workers and exporters. He argued that the deal does not secure meaningful access for the country’s crucial dairy sector, despite New Zealand fully opening its own market to Indian goods. “This is a bad deal for New Zealand. It gives too much away and does not get enough in return, including on dairy,” he said.

Peters also raised concerns about the political arithmetic behind the pact, noting that his party had urged coalition partner National to allow the entire three-year parliamentary term for negotiations rather than finalising what he described as a “low-quality” outcome. “We felt it would be unwise for National to sign up to a deal with India when a Parliamentary majority for that deal was uncertain,” he said.

According to Peters, New Zealand First formally rejected the agreement when the Cabinet sought approval last week. He said the party invoked the “agree to disagree” clause in the coalition arrangements and signalled it would vote against any enabling legislation that reaches Parliament. He criticised the omission of New Zealand’s principal dairy exports such as milk, cheese and butter, noting that shipments of these products were worth about $24 billion in the year to November 2025, accounting for roughly 30 per cent of total goods exports. “The India FTA would be New Zealand’s first trade deal to exclude our major dairy products,” he said, adding that this position would be impossible to defend to rural communities.

Peters stressed that his opposition is directed at the terms of the agreement rather than at India or its leadership. He said the party had conveyed its stance to India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, whom he described as a respected figure and long-standing partner in advancing bilateral ties. “Our opposition to the deal is not a critique of the Government of India or its negotiators,” he said, adding that New Zealand First’s approach to trade policy has been “consistent, longstanding and principled,” shaped by its past positions on negotiations with South Korea and China.