New Zealand Winegrowers has hailed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement as strategically important for the export future of the industry.
Photo: Quinn Dombrowski / CC BY-SA 2.0
CEO Philip Gregan said the trade deal agreed yesterday would provide improved access into key TPP markets and a secure rules-based system that would help improve market access.
"TPP countries account for about 60 percent of our wine exports at the moment and we face tariffs going into a number of those countries, including the United States, Canada and Japan - and as we understand it, those tariffs are going to be eliminated. So that's a great deal for NZ wine exporters," Mr Gregan said.
He said at current volumes, the TPP would be worth at least $10 million a year to wine exporters, and they had great ambitions to export considerably more in the years to come.
"Some of our competitor countries such as Australia have had the benefit of free trade agreements going into the United States. This is going to place us on a equal footing with them, which is great."
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