The two main stumbling blocks in the negotiations were New Zealand`s desire to improve access to its dairy products in Australia and Australia wants New Zealand to remove export incentives and quantitative restrictions. After overcoming these two obstacles, the Heads of State and Government were signed on 14 December 1982 and came into force on 1 January of the following year. In the past, ANZLF has played an important role in defining the trans-Tasman agenda, particularly in the economic field, such as supporting the acceleration of the SEM initiative and promoting the concept of a “net trans-Tasman benefit”. He has a New Zealand co-chair (currently Adrian Littlewood, Executive Chef at Auckland Airport) and an Australian co-chair (Ann Sherry AO, Executive Chairman of Carnival Australia). ANTLF has working groups that have championed and designed the agenda in five sectors: innovation, infrastructure, tourism, health technologies and agriculture. Home Images and Media Photos Signing of the Closer Alexander Turnbull Economic Relations Agreement LibraryReference: EP/1982/4383/11-FPhotographer: Ross GiblinPermission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be recovered before each reuse. Calendar: The ERC replaced the 1965 Australian Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in New Zealand. Discussions began in the late 1970s and a new agreement was reached in December 1982. The ERC came into force in January 1983.
The Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF) is a business-led initiative to develop bilateral relations between Australia and New Zealand and provide a direct business contribution vehicle in the Trans-Tasman Economic Integration Program. ANTLF brings together ministers and heads of state and government from business, government and science to create an independent public platform for debate on Australia-New Zealand relations. In February 2015, anZLF celebrated its 10th anniversary and the eleventh ANZLF was held in Sydney in October 2016. The ERC was built on the former New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed on August 31, 1965 and entered into force on January 1, 1966. NAFTA had lifted four-fifths of tariffs between the two countries and quantitative restrictions on trade in the Tasmanian Sea. But it was deemed too complex and bureaucratic, and in March 1980 a joint statement by the Prime Minister was issued calling for “closer economic relations.” Based on the 1966 New Zealand-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the ERC was New Zealand`s first comprehensive bilateral trade agreement and one of the first such agreements in the world. The two main stumbling blocks in the negotiations were New Zealand`s desire to improve access to its dairy products in Australia and Australia wants New Zealand to remove export incentives and quantitative restrictions. As both obstacles were overcome in December 1983 through the Heads of Agreement, the ERC was formally signed on March 28, 1983.
