Concluding remarks by the Chairperson

The sixth Trade Policy Review of New Zealand has offered us a good opportunity to deepen our understanding of recent developments in, and challenges to, its trade, economic, and investment policies since its fifth TPR in 2015. I would like to thank the New Zealand delegation, led by H.E. Ambassador Clare Kelly, Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the WTO, for the active participation in this exercise. My gratitude also goes to our discussant H.E. Ambassador Stephen de Boer, Permanent Representative of Canada, for his insightful comments and to the 41 delegations that took the floor during this meeting. The strong interest in New Zealand's trade policies is also evident from the 442 advance written questions, 268 sent before the meeting.

Members commended the resilience and growth performance of the New Zealand economy despite the global economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They praised the timely adoption of support measures that allowed the economy to rebound quickly, but also indicated that lower migration flows, weak capital accumulation and slowing productivity growth are expected to adversely affect potential output. In this regard, Members applauded New Zealand for implementing both its Trade for All Agenda that aims to ensure that trade benefits all New Zealanders, and its Trade Recovery Strategy which focuses on broadening support for exporters but also acknowledges that further reforms and trade diversification are needed.

New Zealand was praised for its longstanding commitment to trade openness and to the multilateral trade system. Members appreciated New Zealand's active participation and constructive role in all WTO areas, in particular its strong notifications record, and its involvement in the Joint Statement Initiatives, such as on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, e-commerce, services domestic regulation, investment facilitation, trade and gender, and trade and environment. Members also welcomed New Zealand's active engagement in the preparation of MC12, its support for a TRIPS waiver on COVID-19 vaccines, and for reforms to strengthen the WTO. Members commended New Zealand for having ratified the Agreement on Trade Facilitation, for endorsing the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement, and for joining the plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement. They also mentioned that during the review period New Zealand added four new regional trading agreements to its RTA network, involving now 29 economies.

Members acknowledged that since its last Review, New Zealand updated and modernized its trade and investment frameworks to further simplify and streamline administrative procedures. In the area of investment, Members commended New Zealand for removing screening requirements for low-risk transactions while noting that it enhanced the screening for high-risk transactions. They also congratulated New Zealand for its open trade regime, having further reduced its average applied MFN tariff rate to 2.2%. Nonetheless, they encouraged New Zealand to consider reducing the gap between bound and applied tariff rates to further increase tariff predictability. Reforms and new initiatives in the areas of customs and the digital economy were also welcomed. New Zealand was encouraged to remove its remaining foreign investment restrictions in sensitive sectors, and to further promote competition in the economy so as to increase productivity and reduce costs.

At the sectoral level, Members congratulated New Zealand for maintaining a liberal agricultural regime and recognized the importance of the sector for New Zealand's economy and trade. Nevertheless, questions were asked about New Zealand's regulations in place in the dairy and kiwifruit markets, including the perceived advantaged position of the kiwifruit's state trading company. On services, some questions were raised regarding New Zealand's financial, telecoms, and transport services.

Other areas of interest to Members included the public interest assessment for the application of trade remedies; SPS and TBT regimes; recent amendments to the government procurement framework; the role of state-owned enterprises and government-related entities in the economy; New Zealand's newly signed Digital Economy Partnership Agreement; climate-related policies and targets, notably its emissions trading scheme and its zero-carbon-emissions goal; gender issues; and various aspects of the intellectual property rights regime, such as its copyright and Geographical Indications regimes, and the protection of Māori traditional knowledge.

The above points are some of the key issues that had emerged in our discussion. I hope that the New Zealand delegation will consider and further reflect on these issues and on the many constructive comments, both broad and detailed, that it has received during this Review. Members look forward to receiving the answers from New Zealand to any outstanding and follow up questions within one month, at which point the Review will be successfully concluded.