Page 266 - MOE ENGLISH PR REPORT - SEPTEMBER 2024 (Part 1)

Zealand’s biggest export market in the Middle East, with goods and services worth NZ$1.12
billion (US$710 million) sold there in the year to June 2024.

Consumers in the UAE, which has a population of around 10 million, have a particularly
strong appetite for New Zealand’s high-quality food products – especially dairy, meat, and
fruit. The UAE is already New Zealand’s fourth-biggest market for milk powder. The quest for

food security is a major theme in all six Gulf countries, driven by climate change, growing
populations, and recent experiences of supply chain ruptures during the COVID-19
pandemic.

There is a strong geostrategic element to the UAE’s previous choices for CEPA partners. So
far, agreements have come into force with Cambodia, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Israel, and
Turkey. And earlier this month, it was announced that negotiations had concluded with
Australia.

For the UAE, the trade agreements with both Australia and New Zealand will provide a
useful combined gateway as geopolitical competition between the United States and
China in the Indo-Pacific continues to build. In the future, we could see more ideas like last
year’s tripartite agreement between the UAE, New Zealand, and Fiji to jointly implement a
renewable energy project on three Fijian islands.

The UAE’s dual “down under” CEPAs will also complement the two deals with Cambodia
and Indonesia – both ASEAN members – that have already entered into force in the wider
Asia-Pacific region. And overall, the four agreements also reflect a general Gulf interest in
“looking East” in a bid to diversify ties beyond traditional partners in Europe and North

America – particularly the United States.

A June 2023 briefing paper prepared by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
(MFAT) and released under the Official Information Act (OIA) shows that the UAE invited
New Zealand to be one of its inaugural CEPA partners as early as November 2021. At the
time, Expo 2020 was being held in Dubai with a significant Kiwi contribution. Intriguingly,
the paper suggests that New Zealand initially played hard-to-get, offering only “holding
responses, noting that we remain focused on concluding negotiations with the GCC as a
whole.”

New Zealand officials were clearly concerned that negotiating a side deal with the UAE

could put a deal with the GCC at risk. By September 2023, Wellington had changed its
mind – a view that was probably encouraged by Australia’s own positive experience of CEPA
talks with the UAE that began in early 2022.

While the main attraction for Wellington clearly lies in boosting export volumes and
reducing non-tariff barriers – and New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry describes the CEPA as a

https://thediplomat.com/2024/09/new-zealands-trade-deal-with-the-uae-could-be-the-
start-of-something-much-bigger/