New Zealand PM to visit India next week, trade in prime focus

The Dollar Business Bureau

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key is leading a high-level business and education delegation on his four-day visit to India. Key will be on a State visit to India next week from 24th to 27th October 2016.

Prime Minister Key will meet his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to discuss bilateral relations and attend a business summit during his four-day stay in India. 

The New Zealand Prime Minister will be accompanied by Mark Mitchell, Chair of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee and Kanwaljeet Singh Bakshi, Member of Parliament.

India-New Zealand bilateral trade in both goods and services amounted to $1.45 billion in 2015. Two way trade in goods stood at $798.86 million and in services $652.13 million.

The exports have witnessed a continuous decline for the last few financial years, as it fell from $587.74 in 2013-14 and $498.15 in 2014-15 to $419.84 in 2015-16. The outbound shipments declined across various sectors including machinery, vehicles, articles of iron and steel as well as that of plastic.

New Zealand imports pharmaceutical products, pearls, precious & semi-precious stones, vehicle and vehicle parts, textiles, apparel articles, machinery items and plastic and plastic items from India.

India imports wood, wood charcoal, wool, animal hair, edible fruits & nuts, raw hides and skins from New Zealand.

Responding to a query on New Zealand’s support for India’s membership of the NSG, Vikas Swarup, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said, “We will tell New Zealand that why membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group is important for India. Why predictability and access are two key issues which are necessary for us to achieve our clean energy goals, to achieve the targets that we have very positively outlined in the INDCs which have now become the Nationally Determined Contributions as part of the Paris Agreement which we have ratified.”