New Zealand and Switzerland have agreed to begin trade discussions, following a meeting between Trade Minister Todd McClay and Swiss State Secretary for Economic Affairs Helene Budliger Artieda in Auckland on 16 July 2026.

The two met on the margins of the Future of Investment and Trade (FIT) Partnership meeting. New Zealand is a founding member of the FIT Partnership, which it launched alongside Switzerland, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates as a multi-regional grouping. The talks mark a further step in what is already an active bilateral trade relationship: two-way trade between the two countries was worth $1.88 billion in 2025, according to RNZ.

New Zealand's exports to Switzerland totalled $429 million in 2025, with key exports including travel services, meat and edible offal, and hides and skins. Imports from Switzerland were worth $1.45 billion, led by transportation services, pharmaceuticals, clocks and watches, insurance and pension services, and charges for the use of intellectual property. Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs similarly identifies pharmaceutical products and precision instruments as its main exports to New Zealand.

McClay described Switzerland as "an important partner for New Zealand and one of the world's most innovative and advanced economies." He said the trade and investment dialogue would lead to closer economic cooperation through bilateral trade and international forums including the WTO, the OECD, and the FIT Partnership.

Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, which gives this track a distinct character from the EU-NZ free trade agreement signed in 2023. The bilateral dialogue with Bern runs separately from Brussels.

Officials from both countries will hold their first meeting under the new trade dialogue in September.

The announcement builds on a recently signed agreement linking the two economies. On 1 July 2026, McClay signed a trade agreement with Costa Rica, Iceland, and Switzerland — the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS). The Swiss government announced in November 2024 that the ACCTS would be submitted to the Swiss Parliament for approval, with entry into force for Switzerland expected at the start of 2026.

The agreement was the subject of a speech McClay delivered to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs in May 2026, titled "International Trade in Troubled Times." In that address, McClay framed the government's trade agenda against a backdrop of global protectionist pressure — a theme that fits alongside the ACCTS, which was designed to link trade liberalisation directly to climate and sustainability commitments.

For those working in trade policy, the Swiss dialogue is worth tracking alongside several overlapping threads. The ACCTS — signed just weeks before the July announcement — already binds New Zealand and Switzerland to a set of disciplines removing tariffs on environmental goods and cutting fossil fuel subsidies. The new bilateral trade dialogue could extend that foundation into broader market access and services liberalisation. Switzerland's import profile into New Zealand is dominated by high-value services and IP-related charges, which means any future negotiations will likely engage the harder end of trade policy: digital trade, intellectual property frameworks, and mutual recognition of professional standards.

The FIT Partnership context also matters. The grouping is designed to give like-minded economies a venue for developing trade and investment rules outside established negotiating forums. Switzerland co-launched it. The bilateral dialogue now runs alongside that multilateral track, which could give officials more touchpoints across both bilateral and plurilateral settings.

Whether the September meeting produces a formal negotiating mandate or remains a scoping exercise has not been indicated. Either way, the government has signalled it sees Switzerland as a priority for deeper economic engagement, and the relationship now has more institutional architecture behind it than at any previous point.