Chinese and New Zealand officials met yesterday in Beijing to begin negotiations on a bilateral free trade deal.

According to an official from the Ministry of Commerce, Assistant Minister of Commerce Yi Xiaozhun and New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade China Taskforce Director Charles Finny met yesterday, officially starting FTA talks between the two countries.

The meeting focused on the negotiation schedule and the mode of tariff reduction, he said, refusing to release more details.

In trade talks, procedural issues will dominate this first round of talks.

The formal start of FTA talks followed an announcement from President Hu Jintao and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark in Santiago, Chile, during the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in late November. They said they would start FTA talks as soon as possible.

The announcement comes after a feasibility study was carried out into a possible free trade agreement. The more than 100-page study concluded "significant complementarities" exist between the two countries and that an FTA "would benefit" both.

To secure these benefits and build on the long and warm relationship, the study recommends FTA negotiations on goods, services and investment as soon as possible.

The study said a free trade agreement (FTA) potentially could boost New Zealand exports of goods and services to China by between US$260 million and US$400 million a year.

It does not identify major problems but identifies concerns about possible adjustments for producers from the removal of barriers to trade, and recommends their impact be taken into account in negotiations.

The study was launched in late May, the same month the two nations signed a trade and economic co-operative framework agreement.

According to the agreement, the two nations wish to start negotiations early next year.

Trade between the two has thrived in past years, said the Ministry of Commerce. From January to October, two-way trade volume surged by 38 percent on a yearly basis to US$2.07 billion, exceeding the full-year figure of 2003.

A spokeswoman for New Zealand trade negotiations minister, Jim Sutton, said the negotiations could take more than a year.

(China Daily December 7, 2004)