Primary sources
Read the documents yourself
Everything on this site traces back to the documents below. We mirror the key official documents locally (so they stay available and fast) and link to the originals. Mirrored copies are unmodified.
The agreement
- Full text of the Free Trade Agreement The complete consolidated treaty: all 30 chapters, annexes and schedules, including the tariff schedules (Annex 2A/2B), services and temporary-entry annexes (8A–8L), investment (Chapter 9), and cooperation chapters. Original at mfat.govt.nz
- Official summary The Government's own plain-language summary of what was concluded. Useful, but remember it is the negotiating government's account. Original
- Key tariff outcomes Sector-by-sector tariff results for New Zealand exports. Original
Assessments
- National Interest Analysis (NIA) The Government's formal assessment of benefits and costs, tabled in Parliament — includes the ~$15m/yr foregone tariff revenue estimate and the legal-obligation analysis. Original
- Economic Impact Assessment (Motu) The independent CGE modelling behind the +0.07% GDP figure — including its own statement of what it does and doesn't model (read the limitations section; both sides argue from it). Original
Parliament
- Bill as reported from the select committee, with commentary The committee's recommendation (passage by majority; amendments unanimous; no minority view), its reasoning on every change, the submission count (149 written, 16 heard), and the amended bill with insertions and deletions marked. The single most useful document for judging what scrutiny achieved. Original at legislation.govt.nz
- India Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill — Parliament's record Stage history (first reading 25 June; reported 10 September; second reading, committee of the whole House and third reading recorded as 15 September because the urgency sitting ran into the 16th; Royal Assent pending), plus links to Hansard for each debate, the amendment paper dividing the bill, and the published submissions.
- Second reading, committee stage and third reading — Hansard, 15–16 September 2026 The final debates: McClay's sector-by-sector case, Labour's qualified support, New Zealand First's migration objections and filibuster, the Greens' economic case against, and Priyanca Radhakrishnan's rebuke of both the Government's victory lap and NZ First's rhetoric. RNZ's summary if the transcript is slow to load.
- First reading debate — Hansard, 25 June 2026 What each party actually argued on the floor. Worth reading alongside the process debate.
- International treaty examination The committee's examination of the treaty itself — 1,780 written submissions, 52 oral submitters, and the report that concluded the immigration commitments are "relatively narrow".
- Watch the oral hearings on the bill The committee's public hearings are accessible via its page on the Parliament website (meetings, business and watch links) and its Vimeo archive — look for the India Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill sessions dated 27 and 30 July.
Official positions & commentary
- MFAT: NZ–India FTA hub The Government's central page — key outcomes, timeline, and sector fact sheets.
- Beehive: signing announcement · Beehive: "India FTA passes with significant majority" The Government's case in its own words, at signing and at passage — the latter promising entry into force "this year" and framing the 93–29 vote as a mandate.
- Government of India: statement welcoming Parliament's vote Delhi's account of the same milestone — note the emphasis on "facilitating USD 20 billion of investment into India" and on "enhanced pathways for Indian professionals and students", the two clauses Wellington describes most cautiously. India's commerce secretary separately expects operation "in the latter half of October".
- Westpac / NZ International Business Forum: "The NZ–India Free Trade Agreement" Argues Motu's estimates are "overly conservative" because they omit education, tourism, new products and India's growth trajectory, while conceding "dairy access remains unfinished business". The best-argued published case that the headline GDP number understates the deal.
- Government of India: press note How Delhi describes the same deal — a revealing comparison, especially on mobility and investment.
- RNZ: Peters criticism of FTA immigration settings Coverage of the coalition split over the deal.
- The Spinoff: "good, not great" A measured independent assessment of winners and losers.
- Joshua Riley: "What they didn't tell you" The most detailed published critique of the treaty text — the source of many arguments on the "against" side of the debate.
- The Diplomat: a foreign-policy shift International analysis placing the FTA in NZ's wider strategic turn towards India.
- Democracy Action: "India FTA reopens door to UNDRIP" · Gary Judd KC on the UNDRIP clause Campaign and legal commentary arguing the Article 13.2 affirmation deserves safeguards before ratification — the sharpest published treatments of the sovereignty theme.
- Farmers Weekly: "promote" vs "commitment" India's PM described Article 9.2 as a "commitment" to invest; McClay insists it is "a commitment to promote". The two governments' framings of the same clause, side by side.
- RNZ: India's negotiators threatened to walk out Officials' account of how close the talks came to collapse — useful negotiation-history context for both sides' claims about who conceded what.
Public submissions on the bill
The committee received 149 submissions on the bill (closed 19 July 2026) and heard 16 orally; they are published on the Parliament bills site, and the committee's commentary records which ones changed the bill. The earlier treaty-examination submissions (1,780 of them) remain available through the Parliament website.
- BusinessNZ — letter of support New Zealand's largest business network (76,000+ employers) "strongly supports" the bill and urges passage without amendment, arguing delays "risk undermining New Zealand's competitive position". Original at businessnz.org.nz