Hello and welcome to 2026. I hope that you managed to enjoy a great Christmas and New Year, surrounded by family and friends. I got to enjoy spending some time off in Auckland over the break, enjoying the weather and planning ahead for the year.
National will keep working hard this year on fixing the basics and building the future – and a key part of that is ensuring that our economy keeps growing. We’ve made great progress in just over two years – inflation is back within the band and the economy is growing, and successive cuts to the OCR mean that Kiwis are saving thousands of dollars a year on mortgage repayments.
Just before Christmas I announced that we have secured a free trade agreement with India – that will be a mammoth boost to our economy. This deal delivery on National’s campaign commitment made in April 2023, to secure a free trade agreement with India in our first term.
Formal negotiations for this agreement launched only nine months ago during my visit to India, but from day one, this Government has worked incredibly hard to prioritise and invest in our relationship with India. It is a landmark deal with the world’s fastest growing big economy that will create opportunities for jobs, exports and growth for all New Zealanders.
A growing economy means more opportunities right here at home. It means more jobs and higher wages. It means that we can deliver more roads, schools and hospitals and have better, more responsive public services.
Trade is the engine room of our economy. The more we sell overseas, the better that Kiwi exporters can support more jobs and higher wages.
One in four New Zealand jobs are linked to trade, and we know that exporting firms pay their workers higher incomes than non-exporting firms, and that’s why my Government set an ambitious goal to double exports in 10 years. Because the better our exporters do, the better New Zealand’s economy does.
I never want New Zealand exporters to be worse off than our competitors.
Before Australia’s FTA was signed with India in 2022 New Zealand supplied almost 90% of India’s lamb imports. New Zealand’s share has collapsed to around 8% while Australia now supplies over 90% this is a direct result of New Zealand sheep farmers facing a 33% tariff while Australian lamb enters duty free.
Similarly, Australia has now drawn equal to New Zealand in other sectors too, and the bottom line is that their trade has grown and ours has fallen. I will not have New Zealand exporters being left behind and disadvantaged – and this agreement fixes that.
If there is one word to describe this free trade agreement with India, it is quite simply, opportunity.
This deal tears down the barriers to selling exports to 1.4 billion Indian consumers. The agreement removes or reduces tariffs on 95% of New Zealand’s exports to India, amongst the highest of any Indian FTA.
It puts New Zealand’s exporters on an equal or better footing to our competitors across a range of sectors and opens the doors to India’s rapidly expanding middle class. That means more Kiwi jobs, higher wages and more opportunity for New Zealanders to get ahead.
This is only the beginning – these are two countries who should have an even deeper and broader relationship and friendship. We will continue to pull every lever and work every relationship to continue growing this economy – and I look forward to keeping you updated throughout the year. -Hon. Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister of New Zealand