Sutton tips deal with Malaysia

New Zealand and Malaysia have agreed to undertake scoping studies on a possible free-trade deal, Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton said yesterday.

Mr Sutton is in Jakarta for a meeting of Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) ministers.

While there, he has had a round of bilateral meetings, including one with Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz.

Mr Sutton told NZPA that Ms Rafidah had reacted "very positively" to exploring a bilateral free-trade agreement with New Zealand.

"We have agreed that we will undertake separate studies over the next six months.

"If the studies show benefits, we should then move to negotiations."

Australia and Malaysia made a similar agreement about a week ago to carry out scoping studies for a possible free-trade agreement.

"It's very encouraging that Malaysia is viewing the prospects of a bilateral agreement with New Zealand in a positive light," Mr Sutton said.

"They are our biggest trading partner in Asean."

Aside from pushing New Zealand's dairy products, Mr Sutton also indicated that export education would be on the agenda for the talks.

He said both countries were interested in services between the two.

"We have traditionally had quite a number of Malaysian students coming to New Zealand but we have tended to lose market share a bit as other countries have moved into that as well in recent years, so that's certainly an area where we could strengthen things up."

Economic and trade ministers from Australia, New Zealand and the 10-member Asean are at the meeting in Jakarta.

The trade ministers have agreed on terms to recommend to their leaders for initiating a free-trade agreement.

In April, Asean proposed launching free-trade talks with Australia and New Zealand and a final decision on whether to begin negotiations will be made at the Asean leaders' summit in Laos in late November.

Prime Minister Helen Clark plans to attend that meeting.

A spokeswoman for Mr Sutton said the Government would undertake a round of consultations with industry and other stakeholders about such an agreement.

Asean consists of Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and Cambodia.

- NZPA