6th Round Negotiation of China-New Zealand FTA

The 6th Round Negotiation¹ of China-New Zealand FTA negotiation was held in Beijing from March 7 to 10, 2006, the Chinese delegation², including representatives from the Ministry³ of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NDRC, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, China's Customs and AQSIQ, and delegation from New Zealand held talks. Vice⁴ Minister of Commerce Yi Xiaozhun met with members of New Zealand delegation.

　　China-New Zealand FTA was the first free trade area for China to negotiate with developed countries. In the 4-day negotiations⁵, China and New Zealand deeply negotiated topics of goods trade, service trade, investment, trade remedy, IPR, settlement of dispute, rules of origin, Customs cooperation, animal and plant inspection⁶ and quarantine measures and technical barriers to trade, and strengthened the consensus⁷. The Negotiation made a positive progress.

　　In recent years, China-New Zealand Trade and Economic Relations developed rapidly, and bilateral⁸ trade in 2005 amounted to US$2.68 billion, 2.5 times of that in 2000. The two countries deepened cooperation day by day in areas of service trade and investment. In Nov., 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced together the launching of China-New Zealand FTA negotiation and the two sides held 6 rounds of negotiation in China and New Zealand respectively. China-New Zealand FTA will cover fields of goods trade, service trade, investment, economic and technological⁹ cooperation, its establishment will further deepen the friendly cooperation relations and promote bilateral trade and economic relations to a new stage.

　　The 7th Round Negotiation will be held in May in New Zealand