PM takes credit for NZ-India trade deal, chides others including Winston Peters for opposition
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has taken the bulk of the credit for the trade deal with India, claiming it was due to his personal relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after India refused to deal with New Zealand over comments by former Foreign Minister, Nanaia Mahuta.
He also took a swipe at Foreign Minister Winston Peters for making unhelpful comments about the free trade agreement (FTA) when it first was struck at the end of April this year. Peters’ commentary opposing the deal has only become more strident on the campaign trail.
Luxon told a friendly audience at the second day of the Primary Industries Summit in Auckland that he sat next to Modi during the East Asia Summit in Vientiane, Laos at the end of 2024, and said to him “Narendra, what’s going on?”
Modi launched into a spiel about how populous India was, how it would be a $12 trillion economy by 2028, and how 440 million Indians were now “middle class”, a figure that would be 750 million by 2030. The vision presented by the Indian leader reignited a desire by Luxon and trade minister Todd McClay to embrace the market more fulsomely.
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There had been attempts before. While the sixth Labour Government from 2017 to 2023, under Trade Minister Damien O'Connor, had made explorations towards an FTA, its efforts stalled over being unable to get access to the country’s highly protected dairy sector.
The Kiwis also tried trade integration with India through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), but the strategy failed when India walked away from the mega-regional deal in 2019. The then-Government then pivoted to sector-specific agreements in areas like technology and education.
However, accusations of Labour “not doing anything” to progress an FTA with India dogged the party, and were bolstered by a diplomatic incident in 2022. Mahuta allotted just one hour to meet Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar when the latter made a rare trip to New Zealand, while also saying a NZ-India FTA was “not a priority” for either country.
Jaishankar then publicly voiced unhappiness over the Labour Government's denial of visa renewal for thousands of Indian international students in the wake of the pandemic. The incident prompted major damage control, seeing 1800 new post-study work visas for Indian nationals issued and a make-up tour to India for Mahuta.
Luxon today suggested the ill-will lingered.
“When Mahuta stood in front of Jaishankar and said India is not a priority for New Zealand, that was pretty offensive to the Indian community and to the Indian government. They didn't want to deal with New Zealand. And when you're … the third largest economy in the world, you don't need to deal with [a country that’s] half of one percent of the global economy.
“We had a lot of repair work to do, and I just started with the relationship, so we invited the President of India [Droupadi Murmu] here [in August 2024].”
Luxon said that at the Laos dinner, Modi had loved the fact he knew India so well from many years with Unilever during which he had visited India very frequently. He said he’d then been able to ask for a full meeting the next day to open talks on the FTA, and between Modi, Luxon, McClay and Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, “just really worked hard to get it done”.
The formal talks moved very fast, starting in March 2025 and concluding just nine months later in December 2025.
“And I’ll be honest … you do an Indian FTA as a five million people country with a $1.5 billion dollar economy that hasn’t been done before, and you get home to New Zealand, and the first pushback you get from your political opposition and your own partner is ‘this is not good’ … and whether it was Peters or whether it was Hipkins and Labour initially …
“I had a husband and wife come up to me in Whakatāne and they said, ‘Chris, this is fantastic’ ‒ and you realise it is. They can sell four times as much kiwifruit as what they can today, and then they can go above and beyond with half the tariff.”
The agreement eliminates or reduces tariffs on 95% of New Zealand's exports to India, particularly in products such as sheep meat, wool, coal and most forestry items. Dairy remained shut out.
The deal also included provisions for up to 5000 temporary work visas for Indian professionals, and included a commitment by New Zealand to promote US$20 billion in private-sector investment into India over a 15-year period. If New Zealand does not meet that target, India is able to temporarily claw back tariff concessions until the investment milestones are met.
Labour did eventually support the FTA, allowing it to be passed, although with reservations about what it considered to be unrealistic investment targets, migrant worker exploitation, and a lack of transparency during negotiations. NZ First’s reservations caused it to pull support for the agreement, with Peters calling it rushed and publicly renewing his attacks on the deal during political campaign meetings.