Malaysia and New Zealand commenced negotiations on the bilateral FTA in May 2005. The Malaysia-New Zealand FTA (MNZFTA) negotiations were concluded on 30 May 2009 at the 10th round of negotiations in Kuala Lumpur.

The Agreement was signed by both Ministers of Trade on 26 October 2009 in Kuala Lumpur. MNZFTA entered into force on 1 August 2010.

The scope of the bilateral FTA covers:

1. Trade in Goods;

2. Rules of Origin;

3. Customs Procedure and Cooperation;

4. Trade Remedies;

5. Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures;

6. Technical Barriers to Trade;

7. Trade in Services;

8. Movement of Natural Persons (MNP);

9. Investment;

10. Intellectual Property (IP);

11. Competition Policy;

12. Economic Cooperation;

13. Transparency;

14. Institutional Provisions;

15. Dispute Settlement;

16. General Exceptions; and

17. Final Provisions.

Areas of cooperation which Malaysia and New Zealand have agreed to undertake include:

• education : cooperation to develop public and/or private ventures and partnerships, promote networking, mutual understanding and close working relationships;

• forestry : cooperation in training, and research and development;

• health sector : undertake exchange of information, study tours, or in-country training on benchmarking organisational performance in the health sector, including assuring financial accountability and measuring effectiveness of service delivery;

• biotechnology : promote commercial networking and close working business relationships in the area of biotechnology and related industrial processes;

• manufacturing industry : cooperation in the development of private ventures and commercial partnerships, on engineering technology; design, repair and maintenance; airport development and ground control systems; infrastructural, commercial and housing construction projects.

The FTA:

• eliminates tariffs on all Malaysia's export products including electrical and electronic products, textiles and apparel and auto parts by 2016.

• addresses non-tariff measures, in particular technical barriers, including stringent SPS measures.

• facilitates trade through the establishment of mutual recognition agreements of product standards and tests, particularly for agricultural products and environmental goods.

• provides access for Malaysian services providers to New Zealand market including engineering services, environmental services, services incidental to mining as well as computer and related services.

• provides a framework to further facilitate cross-border investments between the two countries through commitments on national treatment, most-favoured nation treatment, as well as protection of investors and investments.