On July 17, an important meeting on global trade and economic cooperation took place in New Zealand: Ministers and delegates from 21 countries across Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Pacific, the Middle East and Africa gathered to advance work on the Future of Trade and Investment Partnership (FIT-P). The meeting went largely unnoticed but deserves more attention.
FIT-P – an innovative trade arrangement where members agree to collaborate on strengthening supply chains, removing non-tariff barriers, integrating new technologies, and facilitating investment – is growing its membership, creating new models for cooperation, and building economic resilience in today’s turbulent trade world. Its economic heft may not be giant but this new group, representing close to 20 percent of global goods trade, is championing open and fair trade at a time when others are retreating.
Launched in September 2025, this global initiative was spearheaded by four trade-dependent countries: Singapore, Switzerland, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates. Each of these core members quietly recruited some of their usual economic friends, and FIT-P landed on the world stage with 14 members, including Chile, Morocco, Norway, Uruguay, Rwanda and Brunei, which are eager to try something new.
