An FTA with India!

This post by Busted Blonde at Roarprawn alerted Adam to the prospect of an FTA with India. The post referred to a Federated Farmers press release. Adam could not find mention of this FTA progress on the Herald web-site, although there was a plethora of stories on Indian cricket.

Reading the Fed Farmers item reminded Adam of a post he made early in his blogging career concerning Food Prices. This referred specifically to the size of the Indian market and asked whether NZ famers had the vision and capacity to meet the challenge. This is still a question in Adam’s mind. Though Adam is very much of the opinion that India represents a significant opportunity for NZ to capitalise upon its considerable agricultural expertise and make money from the provision of services to enable Indian famers to improve output, not just product. It should be noted that India’s outwardly looking entrepreneurial businesses are potentially a source of major inward investment for NZ.

Additionally Adam has been a longtime proponent of concluding an agreement with India. In the post referenced here, Adam enunciated some reasons.

Further, for those interested in the area of our connections with Asia and why we need good relations with both India and China, Adam would draw attention to a rather lengthy post he made called Emerging Titans which considered a book published last year by Bill Emmott.

To return to where we started. Tim Groser is to be congratulated as is MFAT and indeed Groser’s predecessor, Phil Goff, for getting us well positioned for an agreement with India. Agreements such as this will be vital in the medium to longer term as NZ seeks to clamber out of the recession and improve long-term economic prospects. This item at Voxy identifies as potential opportunities for NZ in the India/NZ relationship several of the areas Adam mentioned earlier.

Now for Japan and South Korea.