Trade Minister Damien O'Connor to travel to Europe, Middle East

Trade Minister Damien O'Connor is off to Europe and the Middle East. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Trade and Export Growth and Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor will head for Europe and the Middle East this weekend.

The trip will attempt to tie up the loose ends of New Zealand's free trade agreement (FTA) with the United Kingdom, pushing forward a stalling trade agreement with the European Union, and is also to visit fast-growing export markets in the Middle East.

O'Connor leaves on Sunday.

He will have meetings in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In the UK he will meet Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan.

O'Connor said he hopes to "complete the final steps of our FTA negotiations".

The guts of the FTA were announced last year.

O'Connor said in Europe he would "meet with European Union counterparts to advance our FTA talks in Brussels".

"That will be followed by a visit to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva".

The trade agreement with Europe is advanced, but talks had slowed over a gap in ambition between Europe and New Zealand on goods market access.

In the Middle East, O'Connor will attend Expo 2020 in Dubai.

He said the trip "provides the opportunity to also engage with the Gulf Cooperation Council when in the Middle East".

"Our trade agenda has very good momentum. We are now reconnecting with a post-Covid world and unlocking opportunities that will drive our economic recovery from the pandemic," O'Connor said.