Ardern Hails Trade ‘Vision’, France’s Macron to Visit NZ
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hopes any roadblocks to starting negotiations for a New Zealand-EU trade deal have been removed.
Ms Ardern had an hour-long bilateral meeting with France’s President Emmanuel Macron after landing in Paris on Monday, the first time the two leaders have met. They jointly announced support for moving ahead with a free trade deal between New Zealand and the the European Union (EU).
“I believe it’s this new generation of trade agreements that we can take forward and the agreement between New Zealand and the EU can serve as a model in this respect,” Mr Macron said after the meeting, through a translator.
“We have a shared common vision of what should be the new trade agreements.”
EU member states are due to decide in May whether to greenlight negotiations, and France had until this point been hesitant about it, particularly around agriculture.
The pair issued a written joint declaration, noting that any agreement would “preserve the right of governments to regulate for legitimate public policy objectives such as the promotion of sustainable development”.
It supported agreement to enhancing bilateral trade - “including through the future negotiation of a balanced, mutually beneficial, progressive and inclusive” NZ-EU trade deal.
It was not a guarantee, as another EU country could yet block the talks from getting under way, but Ms Ardern said she was heartened by Mr Macron’s backing for the talks.
“Nothing is certain, there’s always room for these things to move, but I certainly come away form this visit much more hopeful than, perhaps, when I went in.”