Summarised by Centrist

Damien Grant says he read the New Zealand-India free trade agreement to test NZ First’s claims and found a deal that is imperfect, limited, but still worth backing.

The agreement allows 5,000 Indian workers in specified categories at any one time, including yoga instructors, chefs, music instructors, Ayush practitioners, software engineers, engineers, construction managers, teachers and nurses. 

Grant points out that this is not 5,000 per year, but at any one time. And the workers must leave after their permitted stay.

He also says the agreement does not stop New Zealand changing wider immigration settings. In 2025, he notes, 17,300 migrants came from India and 5,900 left, separate from the FTA provisions.

On trade, Grant says most export tariffs will be reduced or removed, helping sectors such as kiwifruit, wine, forestry and, after seven years, infant milk formula.

But the big omission is dairy. “For New Zealand, having a free trade deal without dairy is akin to a platonic marriage,” he writes. Fonterra is disappointed, while the Forest Owners Association sees opportunity in India’s growing construction demand.

Grant argues the deal is not the “game-changer” Christopher Luxon claims, but may still be transformational for some industries.

He also rejects NZ First’s claim that New Zealand is committed to investing US$20 billion in India. The agreement says New Zealand will promote investment “with the aim” of increasing it. Grant says this is “an aspiration, not a commitment”, adding: “I suspect that this was included to give New Delhi cover to justify the internal political cost of reducing tariffs.”

Grant gives Labour credit for supporting the agreement and says Luxon and his trade minister “deserve respect and credit for this achievement.”

He is sharply critical of NZ First’s opposition, writing: “Opposing this deal in preference of a better one that will never arrive in order to increase your party vote appears to be the political strategy of NZ First and, regrettably, it will probably work.”

Read more over at Stuff

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