Market access is one of the main sticking points to New Zealand getting into the Pacific Alliance, Trade Minister David Parker says.
Minister of Economic Development David Parker. Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
New Zealand launched free trade agreement negotiations with the Alliance in June last year, and Mr Parker has been in Mexico for talks.
The alliance was established in 2011 and currently includes Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
As a group the alliance is the sixth largest economy in the world, with a combined GDP of $3.85 trillion.
Mr Parker said they were getting towards the end of the negotiations, but that was normally when it was down to the difficult parts.
"The sticking points are mainly market access, including for products that are important to New Zealand like dairy products, but there is progress being made and the next round of negotiations are due to be held in Auckland in September."
Mr Parker said New Zealand had told negotiators that in order for the South American countries to make good on their ambition to have the Pacific Alliance agreement be globally relevant, it has to meet New Zealand's interests as well as theirs.
The trade agreement could even end up being much larger than that, he said.
"The other countries on the eastern side [of South America] include the giants of Brazil and Argentina, and the Pacific Alliance is trying to convince those countries on the other side who are in their own relationship, called Mercosur, to join the Pacific Alliance."
It was possible that an increasingly protective United States was giving more impetus to deals like the Pacific Alliance, he said.
"Other countries that are worried about rising protectionism and the possibility of there being deals between big players, excluding smaller countries, that causes countries to think they need a diversity of trade agreements goods and services to the rest of the world."
