to seek Overseas Investment Office approval if they want to buy sensitive land or significant assets which are valued at more than $100 million. But New Zealand is a lot more lenient with a number of countries which it has trade deals with, including neighbouring Australia. Wellington currently offers a special threshold to Canberra, which allows government and non-government investors to purchase up to $552 million and $166 million worth of assets respectively, without seeking OIO approval.
According to Sir Lockwood Smith, a former High Commissioner to the UK, while it is not yet clear if Wellington’s rules on overseas investment are a part of its trade talks with London, however, it would be “a tragedy” if these regulations were to stifle a progressive deal.
“The UK has been an important investor in New Zealand and it would be crazy if we don’t see a way to advance that,” he said. “New Zealanders tend to invest in housing and we tend not to have enough money left to invest in infrastructure, so quality foreign investment is valuable to this country.”
Apart from investment and agriculture, some observes point out that New Zealand’s biggest bargaining chip is its membership in the CPTTP, the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership which Britain has applied to join. “There are lots of good reasons why Britain should be in the CPTPP and it would undoubtedly be in New Zealand’s interests, but only if they can […] do the decent thing on market access for New Zealand,” Stephen Jacobi, from the New Zealand International Business Forum, said. Recent data shows that membership in the partnership could increase British exports to CPTPP nations by about 65 per cent over the next decade, worth £37 billion.
