China and New Zealand have agreed to establish a free trade area as soon as possible, China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Tuesday.  

Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai and New Zealand Minister for Trade Negotiations Jim Sutton reached the consensus following the first meeting of the China-New Zealand Joint Ministerial Commission in Beijing Monday.

Bo Xilai said China hopes the FTA talks with New Zealand will succeed.

"We should give full consideration to mutual concerns, set a reasonable target and move steadily so that we can share the benefits of an FTA soon," Bo was quoted by the Ministry in the statement.

China and New Zealand began FTA talks last year. There has been no announced timetable for the talks. So far China and New Zealand have had three rounds of FTA talks, with the next round due in Beijing in July.

In the last decade China and New Zealand witnessed double-digit trade growth. Two-way trade reached US$2.5 billion last year, double the level in 2001. China was the fourth largest trading partner and export market for New Zealand.

New Zealand was the first western nation to have reached a bilateral deal with China on its accession to the WTO, and the first developed country to have recognized China's full market economy status and to have launched FTA talks with China.

China and New Zealand signed an economic cooperation framework last year that aimed to push forward cooperation in the areas of trade, agriculture, forestry, inspection and quarantine, education and tourism.

The New Zealand minister said a New Zealand-China FTA would benefit both sides in commodity trade, service trade and investment.

"New Zealand would like to become the first developed country to complete FTA negotiations with China," Sutton said in a press conference Tuesday.

He said New Zealand would work with China in a step-by-step manner to resolve problems in the talks so that the free trade arrangement can be established as soon as possible.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2005)