Trade Minister Insists FTA Clause Is 'Very Clear', Two Countries Still Reading It Differently

Trade Minister Todd McClay has described the new India free trade agreement as “very clear”, shortly after a clause within it generated a genuine disagreement about what it means. The clause requires the New Zealand Government to “promote” investment in India. India’s Prime Minister has characterised that commitment in terms rather stronger than New Zealand officials appear comfortable with, which is an unusual outcome for a sentence both governments claim to have read the same way.

Clarity, in trade diplomacy, typically means both parties agree on what was signed. Here, one country’s leader is describing an obligation the other country insists is more of a suggestion. McClay’s response has been to repeat that the wording is clear, a claim that becomes less persuasive each time it needs repeating to a different audience. The clause has not changed. Only the number of press conferences required to explain it has.

Somewhere in Wellington and somewhere in New Delhi, two governments are currently very clear about the same sentence, and very clear about two different things. New Zealand exporters are presumably hoping the confusion resolves before anyone has to promote anything under either interpretation. Until then, “very clear” joins the long list of phrases politicians reach for exactly when something is not.