Judith Collins is calling for New Zealand to get over its “sort of unhelpful approach” to trade with India and explore avenues beyond dairy if the country were to build stronger relations with the South Asian giant.
“In terms of things like horticulture, but also technology, there are huge opportunities for us to do better with India,” says the National Party’s spokesperson for science innovation and technology.
Trade talks with India over nearly a decade have failed to yield significant results, largely because of what Wellington describes as New Delhi’s reluctance to allow concessions on dairy products, New Zealand’s export mainstay.
“In the past, we've always thought about trade in terms of dairy, which is sort of unhelpful, really, because India is a major dairy producer itself,” Collins said during a visit to the office of The Indian Weekender on October 3, 2023.
The veteran politician who has never lost her Auckland electorate seat of Papakura, previously Clevedon, since 2002 underscores National’s intentions to firm up diplomatic and trade relations with India if her party were to form government after the October 14 general election.
“It's very important to understand how important India is. It is not only an economic might, but also it's the largest democracy in the world…about 1.4 billion people as I recall.
“It is an enormous opportunity for us as a country to build stronger relationships with India. And the other thing, too, is that India shares many of our values around the rule of law, you know, having courts, that there is a common law system. That to me is very important.”
Collins says the science and technology sector has grown to become one of Aotearoa’s main industries, and India’s recent moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, shows that bilateral relations can benefit in this area.
“In terms of the space industry, we're actually got quite a large space industry now. But it's mostly around the technology behind rockets, satellites, and experimentation, particularly in science. So, are there other opportunities between India and New Zealand? Very much.”
Collins points out the 2023 general election is quite different from the one in 2020, when she led the National Party’s campaign against Jacinda Ardern’s Labour.
“Obviously Covid-19 was a huge, huge assistance in some ways for Labour because people were frightened of change. They thought that they basically wanted the status quo. And this time, there’s an enormous move for change.
“And that's what I'm hearing when I'm knocking on people's doors, going through businesses, and meeting people in the street. There's a real wish for change this time.”
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