FTA

What was it that originally appealed to you about this role?

I was attracted to working in the heart of Europe across a range of significant and interesting bilateral relationships with varied challenges and opportunities. I love working in the Brussels bubble but I also love getting out of it and seeing the EU from the perspective of more recent members with different histories and interests.

What are the biggest challenges you are facing in this role? 

One of the biggest challenges is the spread of issues and countries. I constantly feel the pressure to do more, and have to manage the expectations of bilateral partners carefully. The EU and NATO can swallow up all your time and energy but the bilateral relationships with member states are critical to understanding what makes the EU really tick.

What value do you hope to add during your time in Belgium, and across your regions? 

Belgium and New Zealand have close historical ties which date back to WWI. There are more New Zealand soldiers buried in Flanders than anywhere else in the world. Honouring these close ties is a privilege and an honour. Beyond this, my priority for the relationship with Belgium was winning their support for our FTA through lots of quiet diplomacy and careful advocacy. Belgium has a mixed record on supporting FTAs but ultimately they did support the NZ-EU FTA – phew! A large proportion of New Zealand exports into Europe come in via the port of Antwerp so ensuring that our interests at the border are protected is also key. 

Beyond that we seek to be an open and constructive partner with open lines of communication to address issues as they arrive – ranging from sharing approaches on tricky consular cases, to working together on Covid vaccine delivery (almost all of New Zealand’s vaccines came from Belgium!), or talking about our respective approaches to the Indo-Pacific. Belgium is currently EU President which has provided further opportunities to work together.

Why is New Zealand’s relationship with Belgium, Luxembourg, Romania, Moldova so important? 

Each of these partners has a slightly different relationship but what is common to them all is our shared values and our shared commitment to the rules based order. With the arguable exception of Romania which can hardly be considered small, we are all small trading nations that have benefited enormously from the certainty and clarity of the international rules based order.

What value can strengthening ties between NZ and your regions bring to Kiwi? 

As the world gets trickier to navigate, having friends who share our values is more important than ever. Strengthening ties between New Zealand and these partners will mean we can work together to protect the rules based order and that we can together navigate the global challenges we face including climate change and increasing geostrategic competition. Following the conclusion of the EU FTA there are also new and improved opportunities for our exporters – Europe is one of the largest and wealthiest markets in the world and the opportunities are enormous. Our job, together with NZTE, is to help exporters find them and make the most of them.

What opportunities are there for growing Kiwi business in your market? 

The opportunities vary across the five countries. Belgium presents opportunities as an easy market to learn how to navigate European ways of doing business and lots of local expertise on how to do business across Europe. In Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova there is rapid development in parts of the economy and opportunities for healthtech, fintech and agritech. While we will always have to battle the perception that our food and beverages come from too far away, our sustainability credentials make us attractive and our innovative thinking is of great interest to partners here. Europe is known for its high quality and its high standards both of which present opportunities for New Zealand companies. It’s not always instinctive for our exporters to look to Europe but it is easier than people think!