Theses
The European Union and New Zealand Free Trade Agreement was agreed on June 30th 2022. It included an emphasis on sustainable development and trade in the Pacific region. Earlier that year, on the 1st of March 2022, New Zealand had also signed a Free Trade Agreement with the United Kingdom. This paper will be looking into the current state of Free Trade Agreements signed with New Zealand. Within this, the research will delve into why the European Union and United Kingdom have shifted their trade focus towards the Pacific in recent years, with the European Union in 2021 releasing an Indo-Pacific co-operation stratergy and the United Kingdom also in 2021 announcing a ‘Pacific tilt’. It will also assess the impacts of Brexit on whether the United Kingdom and European Union will have different priotities when conducting trade. This includes comparing the differences, such as the Māori co-operation chapter, between both of the Free Trade Agreements agreed or signed with New Zealand in 2022. This paper will also research into the future of trade and the implications of a Pacific focus from Europe, on specifically New Zealand. This paper hypothesises that due to the increase in interest by the European Union and United Kingdom in the Pacific region, it will result in them both focusing on improving relations with Pacific states such as New Zealand, through trade. New Zealand as a result will also likely begin to have more political importance, allowing it to potentionally use this to its advantage in future trade agreements it negotiates.
