More than 95 per cent of New Zealand’s wood and forestry exports to India will become tariff-free on day one under the Free Trade Agreement signed in New Delhi on Monday, with the 1,364-page text now heading to Parliament for select committee scrutiny before enabling legislation can pass.
That is according to the official Beehive announcement, which followed the ceremony at Bharat Mandapam, where Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay and Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal signed the agreement in front of a large delegation, which included Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Goyal called the agreement a “defining milestone” for both economies and said India and New Zealand had chosen each other at a time when the world economy is being recast, with the deal opening market access across sectors and creating frameworks for investment and regulatory cooperation. The agreement was concluded in December 2025 after nine months of formal negotiations and now moves to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee (FADTC) for examination.
It comes after the Wood Processors and Manufacturers Association (WPMA) acknowledged the work of officials and Minister McClay in pushing the FTA across the line and singled out the Labour Party for providing the cross-party support needed to legislate the agreement, the association said in a statement following the signing.
Wood Central understands that tariff elimination applies across Harmonised System Codes 44 (Wood and Articles of Wood), 47 (Pulp of Wood), and 48 (Paperboard), covering the bulk of New Zealand’s processed wood exports, with Indian duties of between 5.5 and 11 per cent on most lines wiped on day one and the residual 5 per cent phased out across a seven-year window. Across the broader agreement, almost 57 per cent of all New Zealand exports become duty-free immediately, rising to 82 per cent upon full implementation, with the remaining 13 per cent subject to sharp tariff cuts.
The cross-party push followed an open letter to all political parties from the WPMA and the wider BusinessNZ network earlier this month, as Wood Central reported, in which the WPMA warned that political hesitation risked squandering a once-in-a-generation market opening for the wood sector. The open letter carried signatures from more than 35 exporters and industry bodies, including the Forest Owners Association, Zespri, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, and the Meat Industry Association.
Trade in radiata pine — the backbone of New Zealand’s wood exports to India — peaked at NZ$326 million in 2019 before collapsing to NZ$9.5 million in 2023 at the height of a methyl bromide fumigation dispute, with the recovery to NZ$76.5 million in the year to June 2025 still well short of the pre-pandemic high. Wood and wood product exports totalled NZ$134 million in the same period, with pulp and engineered products the high-value tier WPMA says New Zealand processors are best placed to expand into.
The bilateral relationship has run at a structural discount to Australia, which has held preferential Indian access since 2022, with the day-one tariff cut now levelling the playing field across the bulk of New Zealand’s processed wood lines. Two-way trade between the two countries currently runs at NZ$3.95 billion, with the New Zealand government targeting an exponential lift over the life of the deal.
The full 1,364-page text of the agreement is now available on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website and lodged with the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, where the public scrutiny phase begins ahead of the enabling legislation that will set the day on which the wood tariff line falls — the outcome the WPMA has been pressing across the political aisle since the deal was first concluded in December.
