Minister to attend trade and climate change meetings in Malaysia and Europe

Trade Minister Tim Groser will this month attend the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) meeting in Malaysia, before moving on to Europe to promote a future New Zealand-European Union free trade agreement and to further climate change negotiations.

“The RCEP ministerial and related meetings in Kuala Lumpur will be a chance to influence negotiations to keep the momentum going,” says Mr Groser.

RCEP is a major trade initiative launched in 2012 involving the 10 ASEAN states, China, India, Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. These countries represent markets of more than 3 billion people and a combined GDP of $US23 trillion. New Zealand exported nearly $30 billion worth of goods to RCEP countries in 2014.

The European leg will involve a series of high level meetings in Dublin, Luxembourg and Paris.

Mr Groser will meet relevant Irish Ministers to discuss a potential NZ-EU FTA, and also have talks with his climate change and agriculture counterparts.

“Like New Zealand, agriculture forms a high proportion of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions and they are supportive of our efforts to bring greater recognition of this into climate change negotiations,” says Mr Groser.

The Minister will then attend the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) in Luxembourg. It brings together 17 of the world’s largest economies, and is convened by the US several times a year. New Zealand is invited as a special participant.

“The MEF is a chance for countries to come together ahead of the end of year negotiations and try and work through the sticking points holding up a comprehensive global agreement on climate change, and we’re proud to be able to play a constructive role in that,” says Mr Groser.

He will then attend the Paris Ministerial meeting on climate change.

“Like the MEF, it brings together the major players in negotiations to move the climate change agreement process forward.”