A free trade agreement between South Korea and New Zealand could return to the agenda at next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) meeting in Beijing.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key will be joined by South Korean president Park Guen-Hye at the event, although New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser doesn’t expect a deal to be hammered out immediately.
Groser said negotiations had been progressing well with the Asian nation since resuming late last year. He remained hopeful a trade pact could be signed by the end of 2014. 'If the Koreans are ready to do it this afternoon we'll do it this afternoon,” Groser told Radio New Zealand.
Agriculture is being viewed as a major sticking point for the deal, with South Korea currently receiving over NZ$190m (US$150m) in export levies from New Zealand each year.
“The main thing is that we get parity for some of our major exporters in the South Korean market,” said Stephen Jacobi, executive director of the International Business Forum. “After all they're (New Zealand exporters) not competing against South Koreans, they're competing against other exporters - that's particularly the case for our kiwifruit industry and for our beef industry.'
