Fonterra dairy co-operative has welcomed a new free trade agreement with Southeast Asian countries.
Australia and New Zealand completed the agreement with the 10-country ASEAN bloc on Thursday in Singapore.
The ASEAN bloc was New Zealand's third-largest merchandise export market last year, worth $NZ4.6 billion, having grown at 24% a year for each of the past three years. New Zealand's main exports there are dairy and meat.
Exporters currently pay about $NZ50 million annually in tariffs.
Fonterra is New Zealand's biggest exporter. General manager for trade policy Philip Turner says removing tariffs on exports to South-east Asia will allow it to compete more effectively with other dairy exporting countries.
The agreement will now be considered by the legislatures of all the signatory countries before being formally signed either later this year or early next year.
