Caption

UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Excellency Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister of New Zealand witness the signing of the UAE – New Zealand CEPA in Abu Dhabi on the 14 January 2025 by His Excellency Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Foreign Trade, and His Excellency Hon Todd McClay, New Zealand Minister for Trade.

The UAE-New Zealand CEPA contains 22 Chapters and their annexes and is one of the UAE’s most expansive CEPAs to date, covering areas that include economic cooperation with Māori and Indigenous Peoples, sustainable development, women’s economic empowerment, and transparency.

Summary of the CEPA Content

Trade in Goods

Under the CEPA both Partners will enjoy 0% preferential tariff rates for almost 99% of goods trade on the date of the Agreement’s entry into force. While the UAE has maintained limited exclusions for special goods such as alcohol and tobacco products.

Origin, Health & Safety Rules

All exported goods must meet the Rules of Origin and comply with health, safety, and relevant technical requirements to enter the market. The CEPA facilitates trade through enhancing predictability and transparency of the rules ensuring that traders can confidently export their goods and helps reduce the costs of compliance.

Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation

The CEPA makes it easier for goods to move across borders in a simple, less costly, and timely manner through trade facilitation and customs cooperation arrangements.

Trade Remedies

The CEPA covers disciplines on global safeguard measures, subsidies and anti-dumping measures affecting the trade relations between the Partners and establishes the governance of the WTO agreements covering safeguards, subsidies, countervailing duties, and anti-dumping measures, thereby reinforcing the principle of fair trade while allowing for temporary relief against unfair trade or unforeseen surges in imports.

Investment Facilitation

The CEPA contains commitments on investment promotion and investment facilitation as well as encouraging cooperation with a focus on addressing investment-related environmental issues.

Trade in Services

The CEPA sets out the rules and principles for bilateral liberalization of services trade between the Partners building on the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The CEPA also contains an annex that sets out each Partner’s commitments in specific sectors and subsectors such as professional services, education services, and the audio-visual and gaming sectors, as well as engineering and environmental services.

Digital Trade

The CEPA brings greater coherence to a continuously evolving digital trading landscape integral to today’s global economy. Enhancing confidence in digital trade and ensuring that digital trade flows benefit both businesses and consumers. These disciplines include maintaining the practice of not imposing any customs duties on electronic transactions, reaffirming the importance of cybersecurity, and providing for an economic collaboration framework on digital trade issues.

Government Procurement

The CEPA provides the conditions and requirements for bidders to have access to government contracts offered by specific public entities in various sectors and within certain thresholds. Noting that for the UAE market, opening is limited to federal-level entities.

Competition

The CEPA contains provisions dealing with competition that reflect the UAE’s modern competition legislation. Commitments in the area of competition are designed to ensure that the benefits offered by the national laws of both partners extend to their traders and enhance each country’s ability to address anti-competitive activities.

Intellectual Property Rights Protection

The CEPA complements existing international principles and standards for the treatment, protection, and enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in a manner which is conducive to invention, innovation, and creativity.

Trade and Sustainable Development

The CEPA recognizes the importance of climate change and promoting trade and environment, as well as support women’s economic empowerment. The CEPA puts in place a cooperation and consultation mechanism.

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

The CEPA recognizes the specific needs of SMEs and seeks to address some of the obstacles that SMEs and enterprises face when exporting and attracting foreign investment. The CEPA contains commitments on accessibility to information and identifies areas of collaboration aimed at providing opportunities for SMEs.

Economic Cooperation

The CEPA contains commitments for deeper and future-looking cooperation among the two partners in a variety of areas and issues that will enhance trade liberalization and foster investment opportunities. Areas of cooperation include agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, forestry and food security; industrials and manufacturing; innovation and science and technology; green and renewable energy; halal cooperation; services sectors, including tourism; trade and investment promotion and global supply chains. Moreover, the Partners may agree on other new areas of cooperation that are in their mutual interests and contribute to achieving the objectives of CEPA.

Settlement of Trade Disputes

The CEPA contains rules and procedures for the settlement of state-to-state trade disputes, starting with consultation, and moving to establishment of a panel to adjudicate the dispute, while maintaining the Partners' ability to amicably reach mutual solutions. The CEPA’s state-to-state trade dispute settlement mechanism reinforces the partners’ commitment to trade liberalization that benefits the economy.

Implementation and Administration of the Agreement

The CEPA puts in place administrative and communication structures comprised of designated focal points, committees and subcommittees that meet regularly and are tasked with the management and implementation of the different aspects of the CEPA.