Date set to sign India FTA, Labour warns it would be ‘recklessly irresponsible’

Monday, 20 April 2026

A business advocacy organisation has called on all political parties to support the free trade deal.

It is nearly time to close the deal on the India-NZ free trade agreement, with a signing date set for April 27 in New Delhi.

But in Wellington, things are a long way from settled.

The Government is all go, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon telling reporters on Monday that the “Indian FTA is a tremendous opportunity for New Zealand, and I think trade is bipartisan.”

But Labour seems to be singing a different tune. “Signing a free trade agreement if you don’t have the majority support in Parliament, and at this point they don’t, would be recklessly irresponsible,” leader Chris Hipkins said in a statement to Stuff.

Meanwhile, NZ First’s opposition to the deal has been emphasised by race-driven remarks that Luxon deemed “not acceptable”, and for winemakers – the clock is ticking.

Here’s the state of play.

“I think trade is bipartisan,” Christopher Luxon said at Monday’s press conference.

The Government needs parliamentary support

While the deal between India and NZ is ready to be signed, political parties in Wellington are still negotiating support.

NZ First has already ruled out supporting it, with MP Shane Jones telling fringe online station Reality Check Radio over the weekend that “Winston and I, we’re just never going to accept the India free trade deal.”

Jones and Peters have said they do not agree with visa arrangements, which – according to Peters – provide Indian citizens with “far greater access” to work visas than Australia or the UK did in their FTAs.

Speaking to Reality Check Radio, Jones reiterated their position.

“As for people who believe that unfettered immigration is going to somehow deliver some massive growth dividend - not only will it drive down the value of wages, it will clog up our roads, it will completely overwhelm our health and other front-line services, and I don’t care how much criticism we get, I am never going to agree with a butter chicken tsunami coming to New Zealand,” he said.

Luxon, when asked on Monday whether this statement was racist, initially said he didn’t know, but said “it doesn’t sound right”.

Pushed on the matter, he later conceded that the remarks were “not acceptable” and described Indian New Zealanders as “an outstanding role model for New Zealanders to follow”.

“What I’d say to you is that our Indian community has made a tremendous contribution to New Zealand. They’ve left their home, their culture, their friends, their family. They’ve come here. They’ve worked incredibly hard, taken one, two or three jobs in order to get a deposit for a house or for a business. … They have ambition,” he said.

Shane Jones made remarks that Christopher Luxon called “not acceptable” in relation to the India FTA.

Jones was approached for comment, but had not responded by the time of publication.

Unfortunately for National, NZ First’s position leaves them relying on Labour for support. And it is not yet clear whether Labour will back the deal - despite an open letter from BusinessNZ and 28 other organisations calling for political parties to get it over the line.

“Labour has been engaging in good faith since National announced it had agreed to an FTA without the support of Cabinet and coalition partners,” Hipkins said on Monday. “We want to ensure that any arrangement does not leave New Zealand worse off.”

Hipkins told media recently that Labour has not yet received all the information they have asked for about the deal.

“At this point, they still haven’t actually addressed the substantive issues. We’re getting a lot of reassurances, but the reassurance isn’t backed up by any facts,” he said.

The Post ran an advertisement from BusinessNZ calling for cross party support on an India free trade deal.

The party’s primary concerns are around whether the the FTA caps the number of Indian international students allowed to work in New Zealand, and a commitment to increase private sector investment by US$20 billion over 15 years.

Stuff understands Labour MPs will be meeting with officials on Tuesday morning.

There’s a time crunch

The likely reason the Government is proceeding with signing the deal, despite not having shored up Labour’s support, is because there is a time crunch - at least for the wine industry.

The deal contains a “most favoured nation” clause regarding wine - which means New Zealand will benefit from any lower tariffs on wine that India negotiates with another country.

Luckily for New Zealand, the European Union has already negotiated a 20% tariff for premium wines - better than our agreement’s 25-50%. So the race is on to get pen to paper before the Europeans do.

In the Government’s eyes, the issue of parliamentary support can come after.

“We’re following the normal process that we do with all previous FTAs that we’ve signed,” Luxon said on Monday. “You agree an FTA, you then agree with the legal text that you sign, and once it’s signed, that enables you to bring it into Parliament for public and party examination.”

The day after agreement is signed, it will be tabled in Parliament and made public.