Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said the negotiations for the free trade agreement between India and New Zealand were concluded in a "record" short time period of nine months.
He said that normally negotiations for such pacts take longer with developed nations.
India has concluded trade pact talks with the UAE in just 88 days.
The FTA with New Zealand, "was concluded in a record time of nine months", he told reporters here.
The minister also said that this trade pact was finalised by women officers mostly as most of the track leads were women officers.
The chief negotiator is the joint secretary in the ministry, Petal Dhillon.
"This is the 7th FTA under this government," he said.
Since 2014, India has finalised trade pacts with Mauritius, UAE, Australia, UK, Oman, EFTA bloc, and New Zealand.
Only the pacts with the UK and New Zealand are yet to be implemented.
"All of them are with developed economies, economies with higher per capita income than India. It demonstrates that we are expanding trade relations rapidly with countries who compliment India rather than compete with India," Goyal said.
He added that the latest trade agreement with New Zealand is also the third with the 'Five Eyes' bloc.
The 'Five Eyes' group, which shares intelligence with each other, includes the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
India is negotiating a trade with the US and is in the process of starting talks with Canada.
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