NZ US Council welcomes TPP ratification by New Zealand

Media release

Thursday 11 May 2017

The NZ US Council today welcomed the news that the New Zealand Government has ratified the TPP agreement.

"The NZ US Council has been a strong supporter of the TPP agreement, notwithstanding the fact that it did not meet our expectations on dairy market access. We were naturally disappointed when the USA withdrew from the agreement in January. It is good to know that New Zealand would be ready to implement the TPP if the USA were to decide to come back to it in the future," said Council Executive Director Fiona Cooper.

"The NZ US Council sees ratification as an expression of support for the concepts embodied in the TPP and a sign of New Zealand's continued desire to enter into a free trade agreement with the USA in due course."

The USA is New Zealand's 3rd largest individual trading partner. Last year New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the USA were worth just over $8 billion and imports from the USA to New Zealand were worth about the same. The TPP would have created the first bilateral FTA mechanism to underpin trade between New Zealand and the USA, the world’s largest consumer market.

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