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Treaty of Waitangi
The NZ-UAE CEPA recognises the importance of te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi to Aotearoa New Zealand in protecting and promoting Māori rights, interests, duties, and responsibilities. As with all free trade agreements that New Zealand has negotiated since 2001, the CEPA contains an exception clause that preserves the Government’s ability to meet its obligations to Māori, including under te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi.
Māori and Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation
The CEPA contains a dedicated cooperation chapter to enable Māori to fully participate in and benefit from the Agreement. Cooperation activities between the Parties include promoting trade and investment in sectors relevant to Māori and Indigenous-owned enterprises including agribusiness, tourism and food, supporting business to business connections including women-owned businesses and through trade missions, enabling opportunities through digital trade, and working to protect and promote Māori and Indigenous genetic resources, traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and names and uses of plants, including mānuka.
Māori exporters and businesses
The CEPA includes outcomes in each of these areas:
- Trade in Goods – The CEPA eliminates 99 percent of tariffs on New Zealand’s exports (98.5 percent immediately on entry into force), providing significant opportunities for Māori dairy, red meat, honey, industrial products, forestry, and horticultural producers. The CEPA is also expected to deliver opportunities to increase New Zealand’s goods exports to the UAE due to the preferential access it grants to the UAE’s growing market and the agreement’s broader trade-facilitating outcomes.
- Digital – in addition to the high standard rules that provide greater certainty and protections for businesses and consumers, the CEPA reserves the right for New Zealand to adopt or maintain measures to protect mātauranga Māori in digital trade.
- Services – the CEPA includes commitments on a wide range of sectors of potential interest to Māori, including professional, education, engineering, and environmental services, as well as audio-visual and gaming sectors.
- Trade and Sustainable Development – this chapter promotes sustainable development policies and outcomes, recognising in particular the interconnection economic development, social development, and environmental protection, as well as strengthening trade, labour, and environmental policies and practices. The chapter also recognises the importance of ensuring that Indigenous Peoples’ rights and interests are appropriately integrated in, and are reinforced and not undermined by, international trade and investment policy and activity, including by ensuring Indigenous perspectives, voices and effective participation are appropriately embedded in trade and investment activities.
Engagement with Māori
Throughout the CEPA negotiations, officials engaged with Māori to ensure that interests and priorities were understood and advocated for in the negotiations. This included regular engagement with Te Taumata, Ngā Toki Whakarururanga, National Iwi Chairs Forum, and the Federation of Māori Authorities.