Under the deal, 35% of the trade with China that attracts a tariff becomes tariff-free, and heading towards 96% by 2019, while the dropping of tariffs on Chinese imports will increase from the present 37% to 100% by 2016.
However, for many, the implications and sector-specific details of the wide-ranging FTA will take some time to absorb to determine the longer-term effects.
Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie said the signing of the FTA was encouraging for business, given that New Zealand already operated a "very open economy'' with few tariffs itself.
"There's still a lot of detail for different sectors to be looked at. The challenge for all businesses is how to use the FTA for local market advantage in Otago,'' Mr Christie said.
He said with Chinese gross domestic product running at 5%-6% annually and 1.2 billion consumers there was huge potential.
He said the decline of tariffs for New Zealand exporters, and opportunities that might create, should outweigh concerns raised for local manufacturers or companies importing who find themselves in competition with increasing goods from China.
A gain for China under the FTA is a phasing out of tariffs over seven to nine years on most textile, apparel, footwear and carpet products by 2016.
Concerns have been raised throughout the FTA negotiation period on the impact on New Zealand manufacturers involved in those areas and the possibility of job losses.
Mr Christie said regardless of the FTA, manufacturers and some importers were already facing stiff competition from Chinese goods, noting it was already difficult for New Zealand to compete against the exports of the emerging low-wage economies.
Graeme McKinlay, of 129-year-old Dunedin specialists McKinlay's Footwear, said 80% of footwear already came from China, noting that although there was a lot of cheap footwear available, the expensive shoe lines from China were no cheaper than those manufactured elsewhere.
McKinlays, which specialises in custom-made footwear, school shoes and men's shoes, works on a 40% labour content while China's costs are around 5%.
"You can't compete on price with that, but have to create your own niche market,'' said Mr McKinlay, who is also the president of the New Zealand Footwear Industry Association.
During the past six years, Dunedin father and daughter team David and Emily Cooper have built up the Silkbody apparel brand and in mid-2007 were forecasting turnover approaching $1.5 million.
Silkbody is manufactured at several factories in China, and now sold in more than 60 stores in New Zealand, 15 in Australia, and through direct sales to a chain of stores in the UK.
Yesterday, Ms Cooper said the FTA would be good news for Silkbody as it imported from China and also exported the same garments back.
She was hopeful current negotiations with a Chinese outlet could see the finished product sold directly in China without the need to import and export through New Zealand.
Ms Cooper said any tariff reduction was a welcome bonus considering the weak US dollar - in which currency Silkbody traded - which at present was buying fewer Chinese yuan and this could be offset by gains from decreasing tariffs.
"There's always two sides to the coin. We are in a position of having a counter balance and we're not forced to put [retail] prices up,'' she said.
She acknowledged competing Chinese companies could begin exporting to similar garments to New Zealand
"There's always that problem, but its nothing new and could happen anytime. I don't expect a huge impact,'' she said.
