India, New Zealand Enhance Trade Ties

Context

India and New Zealand are likely to set up working groups in sectors such as agriculture, food processing, storage & transportation, forestry and pharmaceuticals to facilitate ongoing collaboration on key trade and economic issues.

Background of Indo-New Zealand Relations

• India and New Zealand enjoy a very old bond that is rooted in shared ideals, the essence of which is between democracy and the idea of an international order with the rule of law.
• The two countries were struggling to find new areas for cooperation, namely trade, defence, and cultural heritage.
• In the last couple of years, the focus of bilateral relations has shifted to fields ever more specific. These include pharma-services, agriculture and food-processing sectors.

Recent Developments in Indo-New Zealand Relations

• India’s Commerce Secretary, Sunil Barthwal, took the lead of a delegation that travelled to New Zealand with the purpose of uncovering new areas of enlargement of an already existing partnership. The visit consisted of meaningful dialogues with New Zealand’s Minister of Trade, Todd McClay, and the 11th session of India-New Zealand Joint Trade Committee (JTC).
• The talks were focused on the convening of inter-ministerial discussions to probe into some fields such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food processing, storage and transportation. They mainly focused on increasing cooperation in the pharmaceutical products and medical devices sector, hoping for the simplification of regulatory procedures and the assurance of the quality of products. Another important aspect of the discussion was the potential for greater medical sourcing for India and the medical device industry-wide collaboration aspect.
• Then, the conversation also shifted to the horticulture domain covering some sub-areas such as kiwi fruit precocity and dairy farming productivity. The existence of a committee will help coordination of regular progress assessments and recommendations in these sectors, which in turn will expedite the process.
• With the trade talks, the parties resolved conflicts related to market access, non-tariff barriers and SPS measures. The obvious products under discussion were grapes, okra and mangoes. The branches were discovered in the services sector of both the countries, where they noted the increasing interests of the business-to-business as well as people-to-people contacts. Cross-border cooperation that not only helps to close skill gaps, but also facilitates high mobility through capacity building was a clearly written objective.

Key Areas of Collaboration

Several key areas have been identified for collaboration between India and New Zealand in the pharma, agriculture, and food processing sectors. These include:

• Pharmaceuticals: Cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector should aim at making regulations simple, maintaining the quality requirements and so on while facilitating requiring medicine in India.
• Agriculture: The primary smallholder farmers would be able to raise their soil fertility, reduction of tillage and irrigation use, plant cover through the two countries is to promote specialisation and quality by focusing on areas like kiwis or dairy.
• Food Processing: The food processing sector will probably see collaboration on the food quality and productivity of the various processed food products.
• Horticulture: Both respective countries target the improvement of productivity and quality in businesses like kiwi fruit production and dairy farming.
• Services Sector: Both parties want the bilateral trade to escalate, and they also see to this by facilitating people-to-people contacts, sizing up the skills gap and enhancing the staff mobility in terms of the necessary skills.

Benefits of Collaboration:

Collaboration between India and New Zealand in the pharma, agriculture, and food processing sectors is expected to bring numerous benefits, including:

• Increased trade: The main goal here for this is to increase the trade between the nations mostly seeing cooperation between the pharmaceutical and agriculture sectors.
• Improved quality: The cooperation is one of the strategies that equips the project with good quality in the three sectors which include pharmaceuticals, agriculture and food processing.
• Enhanced productivity: We aim to make our quality service an applicable approach for industries, both from the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and food processing side.
• Job creation: Collaboration brings about new possibilities mainly throughout the pharmaceutical, agribusiness and food processing sectors in almost all the cases.
• Economic growth: Cooperation plausibly leads towards the economic development of the two countries.

Conclusion

India and New Zealand are likely to set up working groups in sectors such as agriculture, food processing, storage & transportation, forestry and pharmaceuticals to facilitate ongoing collaboration on key trade and economic issues. Several key areas have been identified for collaboration, including pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food processing, horticulture, and the services sector. Collaboration is expected to bring numerous benefits, including increased trade, improved quality, enhanced productivity, job creation, and economic growth. However, challenges such as regulatory barriers, distance, and competition need to be addressed to facilitate collaboration.

Source: TH  Business line

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q. Discuss the potential benefits and challenges of establishing working groups between India and New Zealand in sectors such as agriculture, food processing, storage & transportation, forestry, and pharmaceuticals to enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

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