New Zealand looks to vaccinate population by July 2021 and reconnect with trading partners

ENTERING RECOVERY PHASE

12 May 2021: At the New Zealand (NZ) Budget speech, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she will lead a business delegation to Australia in July 2021. The trip marks the start of NZ’s strategy to reconnect with its trading partners in Europe, the United States, China and the wider Asia-Pacific.
To facilitate recovery, NZ is set to begin inoculation for its general population by July.
In the short-term, NZ has continued to impose travel suspensions to deal with the coronavirus. On 25 May, NZ suspended the travel bubble with Australia’s Victoria State following a new COVID-19 cluster. This is the fourth disruption to the travel bubble since its introduction last month.