New Zealand, economic indicators

In its summary of the scoping exercise, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade highlighted several areas, in addition to trade in goods, as issues to be discussed during the negotiations; these included trade in services and investment, the digital economy, customs and trade facilitation, non-tariff barriers and technical barriers to trade, SPS measures, intellectual property rights, and public procurement.
The strong focus on addressing barriers to trade in services can be explained by the increasing importance of services in New Zealand’s economy (service exports amounted to 31 % of total exports in 2016). As regards the digital economy, in its new trade policy strategy New Zealand expressed the intention to address in its FTAs potential barriers to digital trade, such as the data localisation requirement. The EU’s recognition of the adequacy of data privacy regulation provides a good basis for negotiations in this area.