Jacinda Ardern eager to secure $20 billion European Union free trade deal 'as soon as possible'

January 25, 2019

Jacinda Ardern expects the negotiations to go beyond 2019 despite Europe's goal of a deal being completed this year.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expects negotiations with the European Union over the free-trade deal to go beyond this year despite a European goal of concluding the deal in 2019.

Jacinda Ardern has arrived in Brussels to begin negotiations for the two-way deal which she says is now worth about $20 billion.

"For us it’s essentially as soon as possible, I think it will go beyond 2019 though," she said.

"When you look at on average. Some of the free trade agreements we’ve undertaken, I think China took around four years, CPTPP took a number of years.”

"We have an ambition to conclude as quickly as we can, but we also want it to be a high-quality deal."

Agriculture will be a key part of free negotiations with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying that industry is too important to New Zealand to be left behind.

"We have been through many occasions and negotiations where agriculture has been raised as a sensitivity and we've worked through that through those negotiations," she said.

"Agriculture is too important for us to leave that behind in these negotiations. It will be a keeper out of them."

Agriculture would be among the sectors in New Zealand to benefit most but France and other EU nations are expected to protest about some dairy and meat products in the deal.

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