Jakarta. Indonesia and New Zealand are eyeing to almost double their annual trade by 2029, among others, by leveraging the halal industry's potential and existing tariff-slashing pacts. 

Foreign Minister Sugiono and his New Zealander counterpart Winston Peters recently took stock of trade progress in an Auckland meeting. According to the joint statement, the chief diplomats noted the progress made towards unlocking the yearly trade “goal of NZ$6 billion [or roughly $3.5 billion] by the end of 2029”.

The 40-point document showed both governments' intention to “resolve non-tariff trade barriers to ensure trade continuity and growth”. Sugiono described the meeting as “productive” in a social media post, noting that the two countries agreed to work on halal standards. 

In 2025, they inked a halal agreement that could ease market entry for New Zealand’s meat and dairy products. Indonesia — the world’s largest Muslim-majority country — plans to make halal certificates mandatory starting this October.

The ministers “welcomed” the upgrades to ASEAN’s free trade pact with New Zealand and Australia, which introduced new provisions for e-commerce and small businesses, among others.

The joint statement also signaled plans to make use of the world's biggest trade deal RCEP to boost commerce activities. Short for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the agreement allows virtually all goods from ASEAN nations to enter New Zealand at zero tariffs and vice versa. Similar terms also apply when they trade with China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

Government data, however, showed some slight slowdowns in New Zealand trade.

Export-import activities with New Zealand had only reached slightly under the $1.9 billion mark in 2025, with the first-half commerce amounting to $962.6 million. Trade dipped by 0.41% year-on-year (yoy) in January-June, totaling just $958.7 million. The first-half deficit for Jakarta skyrocketed by more than 47% yoy to $315.1 million, with milk products making up the lion’s share of the imports.

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