US Tariff announcement - contacting New Zealand Customs

On 2 April (US time), US President Trump signed an Executive Order on reciprocal tariffs that means that New Zealand goods exports to the US are subject to an additional 10% tariff over current tariff rates from 5 April, 5:01 pm NZT.  

There were some exceptions to this:  

• Products covered by earlier US tariff increases, such as:
  • steel products and their derivatives
  • aluminium products and their derivatives 
  • automobiles and key automobile parts. 
• Products listed in Annex II of the above Executive Order (PDF, 423 KB), which may be subject to sector-specific tariffs in future, including:
  • lumber
  • copper
  • semiconductors
  • pharmaceuticals
  • certain critical minerals
  • energy and energy products. 

Changes to the US tariffs policy have been made since President Trump’s 2 April announcement, and further developments cannot be ruled out.

Customs will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with other New Zealand government agencies.  

If you have any Customs-specific matters in relation to the US tariff changes that you would like to bring to our attention, please email USTariffDesk@customs.govt.nz