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Speaker 1: Some more good news for New Zealand in because it's

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Speaker 1: been announced overnight as part of the PM's trade trip

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Speaker 1: to India this week, they've officially launched free trade negotiations.

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Speaker 1: So what are we looking at for specifically and how

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Speaker 1: long does it take trade? Minutes to Todd McLay is

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Speaker 1: in India and with us morning, Good morning mate, So

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Speaker 1: India and FTA, if you can crack this, this would

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Speaker 1: be one of the big prizes. Surely.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's exactly right. There's one point four

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Speaker 2: billion people and their income are growing. We've put a

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Speaker 2: huge amount of work into this relationship over the last

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Speaker 2: fifteen months across the board, not only in trade, and

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Speaker 2: it started to be reciprocated. So we're really pleased to

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Speaker 2: have formally launched the negotiation with India. First negotiators. We'll

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Speaker 2: get together early next month. And although you know it's

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Speaker 2: very pleasing we've made this progress, I've got to say

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Speaker 2: the hard work starts now.

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Speaker 1: You're going to have to flag deary, aren't you.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're not. We haven't ruled anything in or out

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Speaker 2: on either side because we said we want to be

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Speaker 2: a comprehensive agreement. It's fair to say that it's important,

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Speaker 2: you know, for different reasons to both countries. But we've

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Speaker 2: also agreed we're not going to talk about the negotiation

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Speaker 2: outside of the room. We want to back out negotiators

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Speaker 2: be able to get in and do the best that

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Speaker 2: they can. And you know, both the Minister Guael, my counterpartner,

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Speaker 2: I have said if we're out talking about it in public,

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Speaker 2: it makes it harder for them. The assurance I can

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Speaker 2: give you in every New Zealander is we'll be getting

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Speaker 2: the best deal that we can.

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Speaker 1: Though from India, do you have a bottom line at

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Speaker 1: which point you'll simply have to walk away as badly

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Speaker 1: as you may want it.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't think we will have to work walk away,

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Speaker 2: although you know it had happened nine years ago last

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Speaker 2: time into negotiation. We've spent the fifteen months sort of

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Speaker 2: talking through issues this, you know. I've been India five

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Speaker 2: times now. I've had eight meetings with my counterpart and

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Speaker 2: my last visit was up in December. Our officials have

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Speaker 2: been meeting frequently on the telephone and flying up and

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Speaker 2: down and seeing each other. I've been talking to Minister

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Speaker 2: Guel a lot on the telephone and have a very

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Speaker 2: clear understanding of how we might put together some of

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Speaker 2: the issues that have been more challenging previously. So we

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Speaker 2: both agreed a little while ago we should only launch

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Speaker 2: if we believe we can conclude an agreement and we're

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Speaker 2: committed to it. And I was locked away for most

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Speaker 2: of the day within the day, just working through various issues,

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Speaker 2: and we've got to a point where we have agreed

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Speaker 2: we should launch, So we're backing ourselves to get a

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Speaker 2: deal done.

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Speaker 1: I was listening to Vandalayan and Europe the other day

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Speaker 1: say they should get something done with India by the

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Speaker 1: end of the year. Does this represent a new attitude

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Speaker 1: from India or have you just bludgeoned them to the

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Speaker 1: table to talk.

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Speaker 2: It's a little bit of both. We started a while

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Speaker 2: ago and they've never said no, they wouldn't do a

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Speaker 2: deal with us. But you know, we're a small economy

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Speaker 2: back in comparisons to their size. But I do think

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Speaker 2: as a result of what's happening with tariffs and so

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Speaker 2: one around the world, you're seeing a lot more countries

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Speaker 2: who have been hesitant to do trade deals, you know,

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Speaker 2: leaning into that a little bit more. I mean, I

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Speaker 2: was talking to the EU commisis, you know, just a

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Speaker 2: week ago Trade Commissioner, and he was saying, well, you know,

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Speaker 2: as the rest of the world is doing whatever, we're

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Speaker 2: going to support trade rules, you know, so we can

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Speaker 2: give certainty to our businesses and we're going to find

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Speaker 2: ways to do more trade with each other. So I

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Speaker 2: think that's probably part of it. But you know, Prime

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Speaker 2: Minister Luxeon said when we're in opposition and again forming

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Speaker 2: a government, our relationship with India would be a strategic

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Speaker 2: priority across the board and trade is part of that.

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Speaker 2: And I think we're starting to see, you know, with

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Speaker 2: the announcement today on our first day here, as you know,

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Speaker 2: the biggest trade mission New Zealand's ever done to India,

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Speaker 2: this announcement that India is reciprocating the effort we're putting in.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of tariffs, you spent some time with James and Grea,

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Speaker 1: who's Trump's trade man. Is Is that going to go

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Speaker 1: well or not?

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Speaker 2: Well? Look, my feeling is the world will see tariffs.

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Speaker 2: It's not clear whether it's going to be unilateral or

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Speaker 2: you know, country by country. He's certainly looking very very

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Speaker 2: closely at Canada and that's going to get tough. The

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Speaker 2: announcements around Europe as well. The station I had with

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Speaker 2: jameson Greer last week extended to forty five minutes, much

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Speaker 2: longer than we're scheduled, and it was very, very constructive

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Speaker 2: and friendly. There aren't too many things that the US

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Speaker 2: are worried about or singling out around New Zealand. I

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Speaker 2: was able to make the case about we respect the

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Speaker 2: rules that actually European exporters have much lower tariff rates

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Speaker 2: into our market than ours do over there, and we've

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Speaker 2: agreed that we're going to meet quite soon, probably up

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Speaker 2: in Washington, to talk further. So there's no indication that

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Speaker 2: they are focusing on New Zealand, but if they decide

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Speaker 2: to put tariffs on everybody, we are likely to get

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Speaker 2: caught by that one way or another.

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Speaker 1: All right, go well this week appreciated Trade minis to

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Speaker 1: Tom McLay up in India.

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