A survey of services trade among 40 countries will help drive New Zealand's program of securing free trade agreements with other nations, Trade Minister Tim Groser said Wednesday.

Services accounted for about 25 percent of New Zealand's total exports, or 16 billion NZ dollars (13.89 billion U.S. dollars) last year, Groser said in a statement from his office.

He welcomed New Zealand's ranking among the most open in a survey of 40 countries conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at the OECD's annual Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris.

"New Zealand's overall STRI (Services Trade Restrictiveness Index) report card demonstrates just how open, competitive and efficient our services economy is," Groser said.

The STRI aimed to quantify the restrictiveness of policy measures related to trade in services for the 34 OECD members countries as well as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa across 18 sectors.

"We have a better STRI score than the average for 15 out of the 18 sectors covered by the index. In areas such as accounting services, engineering, road and air transport, we are assessed to have some of the most open regimes amongst the countries surveyed, " said Groser.

Tourism was the biggest contributor to New Zealand's services exports, but exports of commercial services in areas like communications, finance and information technology, now made up around a quarter of its total services exports.

"With world trade increasingly taking place within global value chains, our exporters need to be able to access and participate in these service sectors in other countries where they are doing business. We will therefore continue to use our FTA agenda, services negotiations in Geneva and participation in economic fora like the OECD to encourage our trading partners to reduce barriers to services trade," Groser said. Endi

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