Labour backing India free trade agreement ‒ with conditions

Thursday, 23 April 2026

Labour has told the coalition it will support New Zealand’s free trade agreement (FTA) with India, on the basis of assurances the Government will speed up visa processes and take action on migrant exploitation.

The development breaks a months-long stalemate in negotiations between Labour and National; National reliant on support from the Labour after its coalition partner New Zealand First invoked the ‘agree to disagree’ provision on the deal.

Speaking to reporters at Parliament this morning, Leader Chris Hipkins said his party’s support for the FTA came with a warning to exporters.

“We still remain concerned about the government signing New Zealand up to potentially $20 billion worth of investment in India. We think that's an unrealistic target,” Hipkins said.

“That is not something that the Labour Party would have signed New Zealand up for but the current government has, so all of our exporters who seek to take advantage of the opportunities this trade agreement provides need to do their own due diligence.”

Labour’s primary concern about the deal has been the requirement that New Zealand businesses invest NZD$33 billion in India over 15 years.

“We requested background information … to make sure that we weren’t committing exporters to something that may blow up in their face in the future,” Labour’s trade spokesperson Damien O’Connor has said as recently as Tuesday afternoon.

O’Connor confirmed Labour had received a Cabinet paper containing legal advice during around 2pm Monday and had since been through the wording in the agreement.

He denied Labour could have worked any faster on giving its support for the FTA thta’s due to be signed by Trade Minister Todd McClay in New Delhi on Monday.

“It would be irresponsible for for us or our caucus to make a judgement if we didn’t have as much information as we should have. We weren’t involved in the negotiations so we weren’t privy to the reasons for decisions and we didn’t have access to that information when the deal was announced. We have been seeking that, some of that information just came through on Monday,” McClay said.

Labour said the government had made a number of commitments to Labour when shoring up its support for the India FTA.

These include speeding up the visa processing time for ‘Variation of Condition’ changes for workers in New Zealand wanting to switch employers.

“In some cases getting that down to as quickly as five days for processing those visas,” Hipkins said.

“They’ve also committed to support the modern slavery legislation and provide some resources, some legal resources, to those who are the victims of potential migrant worker exploitation.”

Hipkins said Labour had also secured funding for at least 14 additional staff in the labour inspectorate focused on migrant worker exploitation and serious and complex immigration offending in Budget 2026.

On the Modern Slavery Bill, the Government had promised to prioritised the legislation, ensuring it passes its first reading before the election, with a commitment to resourcing Community Law to provide legal advice, Hipkins said.

“Labour's position on the FTA is settled. Our expectations, both on implementation of the commitments above, and on how this Government conducts itself toward the communities affected, are not negotiable,” he said.