CU and New Zealand held fifth round of talks on free trade zone

According to Pm. kz, the key issues at the negotiations were the access to the commodity market, sanitary, phytosanitary and technical regulations, customs procedures and rules of customs clearance, protection measures, intellectual property, trade.

Taking into consideration the results of the five rounds of negotiations, the sides agreed to timely resolve the issues on the agenda and complete the talks till the end of the first half of 2012," the press service of the Secretariat of the Ministry informed.

In accordance with the press service, New Zealand is the first country that the Customs Union member states began their negotiations on free trade with. The beginning of the negotiations process was announced on November 15, 2010.

This free trade zone will be of special importance as long as it will allow the four countries to integrate with speedily developing countries of the Asian-Pacific economic architecture.

The trade volume between Kazakhstan and New Zealand made 3.8 million U.S. dollars in 2011. In 2010, the main share of the bilateral trade turnover made export of Kazakhstan to New Zealand - 82%. In 2011, the share of Kazakhstan made 32.2%.