Coalition feud over India Free Trade Agreement ‘unfortunate and embarrassing’: Trade expert
Tuesday, 30 June 2026
A trade analyst says an ongoing coalition feud over the New Zealand India Free-Trade Agreement is not a good look for the country.
It comes as Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has suggested that Foreign Minister Winston Peters has divulged sensitive Cabinet material on proposed immigration changes in a way that is harming the relationship with India.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been batting away repeated and unsubstantiated criticisms of the deal being made by his foreign affairs minister and the leader of New Zealand First - Peters.
“It’s all highly unfortunate and embarrassing,” former diplomat Stephen Jacobi told The Post.
“It's just something we'd rather not see, not only from the substantive matters to do with trade and all the rest of it, but from New Zealand's international representation and positioning.”
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Jacobi did not think the feud would damage New Zealand’s relationship with India but said it was unusual to have a foreign minister “at such odds” with their prime minister.
“I'm quite sure the Indians are capable of seeing through this and they'll be being kept very well appraised of the way Mr Peters carries on. They'll be getting reporting from their High Commissioner here in New Zealand and indeed [may have] foreseen that something like this might happen.
“So I don't think it's going to affect the passage of the agreement, it’s just unfortunate and I’m not sure how [Peters is] going to be able to entertain that conversation with his Indian counterpart, which we want him to have.
“We want to have the best possible relations with India as an important trading partner, but more importantly, [as a] very influential and significant economy in the world.”
Peters’ criticisms of the agreement have included a lack of access into India’s domestic dairy market, too many concessions on immigration, unfair restrictions on Indian migrants, covert changes to immigration settings and most recently an inclusion of an indigenous rights clause he claims breaches his party’s coalition agreement with National.
Jacobi said most of Peters’ claims have been unfair.
“Much of the criticism that Winston Peters and New Zealand first is levelling at the FTA is completely unjustified and has been shown to be so, but he's using it for his own political ends and doubtless will get an audience in New Zealand - and that's very unfortunate too, because we should all be seeing the bigger picture of this agreement.“
A spokesperson for Peters told The Post Jacobi was “speaking from a position of ignorance.”
“His views are of no interest to Mr Peters. Mr Peters stands by his position regarding the India FTA as stated in the House last week.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Stanford said she wasn’t able to speak to the immigration changes Peters claimed were being made covertly because they were still before Cabinet.
“I can’t [clarify] because those are papers that are going through for consideration. No decisions have been made, so I can’t talk about them.”
Stanford was asked if she thought Peters had breached Cabinet confidentiality.
“I’m not going to make any comment on that. I don’t actually know which particular paper he’s referring to, I can only assume.”
She said the proposed immigration changes had been sent to several offices for feedback and it was normal process to resolve differences behind closed doors.
“I've followed the process, it's been sent to his office, it's been sent to Foreign Affairs, and he's chosen to take this route. It's not the usual route… to talk about this publicly. We make decisions, we send it to other ministers' offices, we have conversations, and then we set policies.
“I certainly don't think it's helpful for the relationship that we have with the Indian government for this to be playing out. It’s not helpful at all.”