New Zealand-India Economic Relationship Overview

Overview

In March 2025, New Zealand and India announced the launch of negotiations towards a comprehensive free trade agreement. 

India is one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world. It represents significant opportunities for trade, and is a priority relationship for the New Zealand Government. 

With the world’s largest population and on track to become the world’s third largest economy by 2030, India’s importance to New Zealand’s trade profile continues to grow. Reflecting this, New Zealand has committed to achieving a step-up in our relationship with India, and to develop deeper and stronger engagement across all facets of the relationship, including through increasing our trade. New Zealand is committed to developing a broad-based bilateral relationship with India that will span political, cultural, and economic spheres.

To date, there has been significant engagement between the private sector and NZ Inc. agencies to develop an agreed approach to lift economic relations with India through sectoral cooperation. Continuing a business-led track of cooperation to enable growth is an important element of the broader trade and economic relationship with India.

The negotiation towards a comprehensive free trade agreement will allow us to address both tariff and non-tariff barriers that impact our exporters looking to do business in India. New Zealand will be seeking commercially meaningful outcomes across a wide range of key New Zealand sectors to remove tariffs and regulatory barriers to expand both our goods and service exports and increase investment opportunities. 

This negotiation is a key part of the Government’s commitment to step up all facets of the NZ-India relationship and its objective to double the value of New Zealand’s exports within 10 years.

New Zealand’s Trade with India

India and New Zealand have a longstanding and warm relationship. India is also an important trading partner for New Zealand – with two-way  total trade amounting to NZ$3.14 billion annually (year ended December 2024). New Zealand currently exports NZ$718 million worth of goods to India. The most significant of New Zealand’s current exports to India are forestry and agricultural products, including wool, logs, and apples. 

There are significant opportunities to increase trade between the two countries. India currently only ranks as New Zealand’s 12th two-way trading partner and just New Zealand’s 25th largest goods export market. The New Zealand-India FTA will create valuable opportunities for both New Zealand and Indian exporters to diversify their export destination and expand two-way trade between our two countries.

Key goods exports to India include:

• Forestry (NZ$126m – logs: NZ$71m)
• Iron and steel (NZ$99m)
• Horticulture (NZ$89m – apples & kiwifruit: NZ$84m)
• Wool (NZ$77m)
• Aluminium (NZ$61m)
• Dairy (NZ$57m)

Key goods imports from India include:

• Electrical and mechanical machinery and equipment (NZ$174m)
• Textiles and apparel (NZ$147m)
• Pharmaceuticals (NZ$131m)
• Precious stones and metals (NZ$60m)
• Vehicles (NZ$62m)
• Paper products (NZ$44m)

To learn more about New Zealand Trade with India and other partners, check out the Statistics New Zealand Trade Dashboard.