New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said Thursday (July 14) that he hopes his country can sign a free trade agreement with the European Union by early 2018, after meeting with French President Francois Hollande.
“We come away from this visit quite optimistic actually about where the FTA negotiations will go. At the moment commissions are going through the process of speaking to all 28 member states but we hope to start the more formal and detailed negotiations early in 2017 and hopefully look to an objective of signing an FTA maybe by the end of either 2017 or early 2018,” he told reporters outside the Elysee Presidential Palace.
He added that he found Hollande to be “quite forward leaning” in his desire to have closer ties with New Zealand, and was eager to speed up the process of an agreement.
Key was invited by Hollande, along with an 86-strong contingent of New Zealand troops, to join the Bastille Day celebrations, in honour of New Zealand’s participation in the First World War as part of the British Commonwealth.
Key said New Zealand was only indirectly concerned by Brexit, however, as the country has more exposure to Australia and China than the EU or Britain.
He said he’s noticed Brexit has possibly lit a fire under certain leaders in Europe to tackle social issues in their own countries.
“There is a real focus actually on that Europe does need to change and needs to really start tackling some of those issues like youth unemployment and that it can’t afford to let the austerity measures that they’ve had washing over Europe for a long period of time now, continue to drag essentially economic growth down and so, I think the leaders are focussed on Brexit but also on what the messages might be for their own countries and for the European Union as a whole,” Key said.
He met with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday in Rome.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016
