Shakespeare’s famous comedy, Much Ado About Nothing sums up a manufactured outrage over the India-New Zealand Free Trade agreement.

The parallels don’t stop there. Shakespeare finished his comedy in the same year that the East India Company was founded; Queen Elizabeth I issuing it a Royal Charter later in 1600.

Trade is not new to India having traded with ancient Egypt, or to us in New Zealand, the seafaring nation of Kupe and Cook.

Thankfully international trade today no longer resembles the exploitive East India Company. That company conquered India by economic and military force as a literal corporate raider.

Its plundering was so pronounced that the Hindi word ``loot’’ entered into the English language.

New Zealand and India share history and blood ties forged in battle. From the skies of Europe to battles as far apart as Southern Africa, Gallipoli and Monte Cassino.

Our unique bond comes from being part of the Commonwealth family. English is an official language of Indian government and Salomon v Salomon is as foundational to company law there, as it is here in New Zealand. The legal system is as recognisable in Wardha

as in Wellington.

Contrary to the World Economic Forum, I believe universal franchise makes New Zealand the world’s oldest continuous democracy not number three. India is however the world’s most populous democracy.

Make no mistake we are kin, including how we both excel at cricket.

So, at long last, we have a closer trading relationship mirroring our deep connections.

This brings me back to Much Ado About Nothing.

Shakespeare’s plot involves two pairs of couples with a major character determined to break one couple up. When this is discovered, the wrong is righted leading to a happy ever after.

Does that not reflect the debate here? Genuinely good news is being picked apart to try to break up a good agreement.

I would ask critical politicians to reflect on what the great US President Franklin Roosevelt said back in 1933 during the Great Depression: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance’’.

Instead of dwelling on imagined negatives, what about the manifold positives?

By 2030, India’s GDP is expected to hit $12 trillion, or the current Kiwi economy times 27. A fantastically large number, as is India’s expanding middle class,  which will be 715 million strong by the early 2030s.

That’s 1-1/2 times more than everyone living in the European Union right now.

It means our exports are expected to double by 2030 to $7 billion but experience says that’s conservative with tourism likely to benefit big time.

The China-NZ Free Trade Agreement was also opposed by some politicians but has outstripped

all projections, growing at an average 14% each year between 2008 and 2024.

Certain politicians also demand value over volume. India and that massive middle class is such a value-add proposition we’d never hope to meet its volume demand.

While there’s much discussion about the lack of dairy in the agreement, one bridgehead is dairy co-operation. As Rabobank’s latest World Dairy Map says, India’s expanding production is being absorbed domestically.

Thankfully, India is aware New Zealand’s Fonterra is the world’s largest and most successful dairy exporter. Who better to partner India when it does move into exporting?

How can it be bad news with half of our exports going tariff-free at the get-go, including wool? Meanwhile, 80% of our exports will be tariff-free when fully implemented while 15% of our exports will have tariffs slashed to an average 3%.

Take the current 33% tariff on our sustainable seafood — it will be phased out completely.

In return, we need to lower the cost of imported construction materials. India just happens to be a world leader in what we need to build better, smarter and cheaper.

This also goes beyond trade. Aside from education and culture, there’s greater defence cooperation and interoperability. With the loss of HMNZS Manawanui, this includes hydrography and cartography, helping us to continue the legacies of Cook and Kupe for whom the new Interislander ferries are, after all, named after.

While Chris Luxon, Chris Hipkins and David Seymour realise we’re onto a good thing, others negatively embrace what Shakespeare wrote in 1599; ``let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.’’

  • Sunny Kaushal is chair of the India New Zealand Chamber of Commerce and Industry, chair of the Dairy and Business Owners Group and past chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Victims and Retail Crime.