Negotiations for a free trade and agreements between New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were completed over just four months, from June to September 2024 and were conducted in secret. The process and substance of these negotiations once again subordinated Te Tiriti o Waitangi to other priorities determined unilaterally by the Crown in breach of its Tiriti obligations.

Ngā Toki Whakarururanga made extensive inputs at several stages of the negotiation, under strict confidentiality. These focused on intellectual property rights (including on genetic resources), trade in services, investment, digital, sanitary and phytosanitary and technical standards, trade and sustainable development, and the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation chapter. Virtually none of this input influenced the final texts, as a politically determined timeframe drove the negotiation of New Zealand’s “fastest ever trade deal”.

A positive achievement was the protection of measures relating to Māori and te Tiriti from the digital trade rules, to comply with the Waitangi Tribunal’s finding that the TPPA text on e-commerce breached the Crown’s Tiriti obligations. More generally, the Crown continued to misrepresent the Treaty of Waitangi Exception in its National Interest Analysis as protecting its policy space to meet its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.