NZ Import Duty and the China FTA: How a Certificate of Origin Saves You Money
Most goods enter NZ duty-free, and the China FTA takes nearly everything else to 0% - if you have a Certificate of Origin. Here's how it works.
One piece of paper, requested in one line of one email to your supplier, can take your duty bill to zero. Plenty of new importers don't send that line, and pay duty they never owed — money that came straight off their margin because nobody told them about the Certificate of Origin.
Duty is the most misunderstood of the border charges, mostly because people assume it's big. For a New Zealand importer buying from China in 2026, it's usually nothing at all. Here's the full picture.
Duty in NZ: mostly zero to begin with
New Zealand is one of the most open import markets in the world. Most goods enter duty-free regardless of where they come from. Where duty does apply, it's typically in the range of roughly 5–10% on selected categories — textiles and clothing, footwear, processed foods, some machinery, steel, and plastics.
Everything hangs off your product's tariff classification — the HS code. That code determines the duty rate, any restrictions, and your FTA eligibility. Look yours up in the NZ Customs Working Tariff Document or at tariff-finder.govt.nz before you fall in love with a product, not after the ship sails.
The NZ–China FTA: the rest goes to zero
For goods of Chinese origin, the New Zealand–China Free Trade Agreement (NZCFTA) takes virtually everything to 0% duty — including those clothing, footwear and other categories that would otherwise attract tariffs.
But preferential rates aren't automatic. You claim them, and the claim needs evidence: a Certificate of Origin confirming the goods qualify as Chinese-origin under the agreement. Your supplier arranges it in China through the authorised issuing bodies. It's routine for them — every export factory has done it hundreds of times — but they generally won't do it unless asked.
So build it into your ordering process:
- Put "Certificate of Origin under the NZ–China FTA required" in your purchase order, not just in an email.
- Ask for a draft copy before shipment, and check the details match your commercial invoice — product description, quantities, consignee. Mismatched documents cause clearance friction.
- Make sure the original travels with your document set so your broker has it when lodging the entry.
The maths is simple. On a NZ$20,000 order of clothing that would otherwise carry duty of around 10%, that certificate is worth about NZ$2,000 — plus the GST that would have been charged on top of the duty, since GST is calculated on the duty-inclusive value. For the effort of one document, it's the best hourly rate in your business.
Not just China: NZ's wider FTA network
If you source beyond China, New Zealand's FTA network is broad: AANZFTA and CPTPP across Asia-Pacific, agreements with Korea, the UK and the EU, arrangements with Hong Kong and Taiwan (ANZTEC), and CER with Australia. The same logic applies everywhere — check the tariff, check the agreement, get the origin documentation. Tariff-finder.govt.nz lets you compare rates by country in seconds.
The exception that kills products: anti-dumping duty
There's one class of duty no FTA rescues you from. Anti-dumping duties are punitive rates imposed on specific goods from specific countries where below-cost "dumping" has been found to harm local industry. They exist in New Zealand on some items — MBIE administers the trade remedies regime, and its current list is public.
Our rule is blunt: if a product carries anti-dumping duty, walk away. The rate either kills your margin outright, or it signals a protected local competitor you don't want to fight. This is a first-week check in product research, before samples, before supplier negotiations.
Where duty sits in your landed cost
Keep duty in perspective within the full stack. Your landed cost is the supplier's price plus freight, insurance, any duty, border levies and 15% GST on the lot. For a typical Chinese-origin consignment with a Certificate of Origin, the duty line reads zero — which is exactly why forgetting the certificate hurts. You're not avoiding a cost everyone pays; you're failing to claim a saving everyone else claims.
One caution: origin claims are compliance documents. Only claim FTA preference for goods that genuinely qualify, and keep the certificates on file — Customs can query entries well after clearance, and the importer of record answers for them.
Key takeaways
- Most goods enter NZ duty-free; roughly 5–10% applies to selected categories like clothing, footwear, processed foods, some machinery, steel and plastics.
- The NZ–China FTA takes virtually all Chinese-origin goods to 0% — but only with a Certificate of Origin, which your supplier must arrange.
- Put the certificate requirement in your purchase order and verify it matches your invoice before shipment.
- Check tariff-finder.govt.nz for your HS code's rate, and avoid any product carrying anti-dumping duty.
Related: GST on Imports: The $1,000 Threshold Explained for 2026, NZ Customs Clearance Step by Step: TSW, Entries and Client Codes