WELLINGTON: New Zealand and China say they plan to renegotiate their 9-year-old free trade deal.
The countries made the announcement today during a visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English said the deal had been a huge success and resulted in trade between the countries tripling. He said an upgrade to the agreement would help expand trade further and that talks would begin next month.
Li also praised the deal, saying it was the first that China had signed with a developed nation and remained the most advanced.
New Zealand hopes that a renegotiated agreement would allow it to sell more dairy products to China. And China would like to erase a small trade deficit it runs with New Zealand by selling more of its products.