Goyal and McClay want to deepen engagement in agriculture, forestry, pharma, connectivity, education and tourism
Indian and New Zealand Ministers have refreshed commitment to strengthen trade and economic relationship, and underlined the need to increase engagement between both the countries under a collaborative approach that engages officials from across relevant departments and the private sector, wherever appropriate.
Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Minister for Trade of New Zealand Todd McClay met in New Delhi on 19 Dec, and also called for broad and informal engagements by creating working groups on specific areas of mutual interest are aimed at fresh ideas for new, innovative and productive approaches for economic partnership between both the countries.
They emphasized that new initiatives should also focus on encouraging, facilitating and coordinating collaboration of technology and expertise for genuine mutual benefit and that the opportunities in each other’s markets, which is of interest to businesses of both the countries should be explored.
Both Ministers expressed optimism about the potential for deeper cooperation and reiterated their commitment to continuing constructive dialogue to further strengthen the bilateral relationship. The meeting concluded on a positive note, with a mutual understanding to continue working closely towards expanding the economic partnership for the benefit of both countries.
They highlighted the need to deepen engagement in sectors such as agriculture, forestry, pharma, connectivity, education and tourism.
Goyal and McClay acknowledged the strong step-up in engagement between businesses in the two countries, and the desirability of ensuring this provides impetus to the Government-to-Government dialogue.
The importance of the annual meeting of the Joint Trade Committee (JTC), established under the 1986 India-New Zealand Trade Agreement, and regular engagement at a senior level was also acknowledged.
The Ministers agreed that both sides should meet on a regular basis, as convenient, for bilateral discussions on trade and investment issues and co-operative activities.
Furthermore, the Ministers exchanged views on global trade dynamics and reaffirmed their support for a rules-based, transparent, and inclusive multilateral trading system. They also briefly discussed issues related to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC) and assured each other of co-operation and mutual understanding for a positive approach to reach a decision on the long-standing issue of Public Stock Holding (PSH) during MC13. Fiinews.com
