NZ, Singapore, Chile trade talks resume this week

1.00pm

Chile, New Zealand and Singapore will resume free trade talks in Wellington later this week, Trade Minister Jim Sutton said today.

Mr Sutton's spokeswoman said officials will be working on the free trade deal with the hope that it could be finalised by next April.

Chile's foreign ministry said today the expanded free trade agreement seeks to become a "bridge for trade and investments between Latin America and the Asian-Pacific region".

Brunei has also expressed an interest in joining the negotiations and NZPA understands it will have observers at the talks.

The first round of the three-way trade negotiations was held in July 2003 in New Zealand then the first round of technical negotiations was held in September in Singapore.

New Zealand and Singapore already have a trade deal but talks to include Chile stalled, partly due to the Chilean dairy industry's fears the small local market would be flooded with New Zealand dairy imports.

Mr Sutton said earlier this year those fears had been reduced due to greater co-operation between the two countries' dairy industries

Under New Zealand ownership, dairy products company Sociedad de Productos de Leche SA, or Soprole, which has a 25 per cent share of the local market, is now exporting more Chilean products than is being importing from New Zealand.

Chile already has free trade agreements in place with the United States, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, South Korea and other countries.

New Zealand is negotiating a trade agreement with Thailand and has hopes that further negotiations could be launched between the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Australia and New Zealand.

- NZPA