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Customs and Excise Act 2018

Entry and exit of goods, persons, and craft - Assessment, payment, and recovery of duty - Exceptions

153: Goods from Cook Islands and Niue

You could also call this:

"Goods from Cook Islands and Niue are usually duty-free when brought into New Zealand."

Illustration for Customs and Excise Act 2018

When you bring goods from the Cook Islands or Niue into New Zealand, you usually do not have to pay duty on them. You can bring in goods from these islands free of duty, no matter where they were made. This rule helps make it easier to trade with the Cook Islands and Niue.

However, there are some exceptions to this rule. If someone claimed a refund of duty when the goods were exported from the Cook Islands or Niue, you will have to pay duty on them in New Zealand. You will also have to pay duty if the goods were exported from the Cook Islands or Niue without paying duty on them first, or if they were made in a special manufacturing warehouse and not paid duty on.

There are a few more situations where you will have to pay duty on goods from the Cook Islands or Niue. If the duty paid on the goods in the Cook Islands or Niue was lower than what you would pay in New Zealand, you will have to pay the difference. You will also have to pay duty if the goods are subject to a special tax in the Cook Islands or Niue, unless that tax has already been paid. You can find more information about this rule by looking at the Customs and Excise Act 2018 and comparing it to the 1996 law, which you can find here.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7039427.

Topics:
Money and consumer rights > TaxesTransport and travel > International travelBusiness > International tradeBusiness > Import and export rules
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152: Outward processing, or

"Exporting goods for repair and bringing them back to New Zealand with lower duty fees"

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154: Interest payable for late or incorrect payments of duty in certain cases, or

"You pay extra if you're late paying duty or pay the wrong amount."

Part 3Entry and exit of goods, persons, and craft
Assessment, payment, and recovery of duty: Exceptions

153Goods from Cook Islands and Niue

  1. Goods imported from the Cook Islands or Niue (whether the produce or manufacture of the Cook Islands or Niue or not) are to be admitted into New Zealand free of duty.

  2. Subsection (1) does not apply to—

  3. goods in respect of which, on their exportation from the Cook Islands or Niue, a claim for drawback of duty has been made and allowed:
    1. goods that, by reason of warehousing or for any other reason, have been exported from the Cook Islands or Niue without payment of duty on their importation into the Cook Islands or Niue:
      1. goods produced in a manufacturing warehouse in the Cook Islands or Niue, unless they have been entered in the Cook Islands or Niue for home consumption and the duty (if any) has been paid on them:
        1. goods on which a rate of duty had been paid in the Cook Islands or Niue lower than that to which the goods would be subject in New Zealand at the time of their importation into New Zealand if imported directly from their country of origin or where the valuation of the goods for duty has been assessed in the Cook Islands or Niue on a different basis from that applying in New Zealand as at the date of the importation of the goods into New Zealand:
          1. goods subject to excise duty in the Cook Islands or Niue, unless such duty has been paid on them as if they had not been exported.

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