NZ Customs Release 726

Yesterday, Customs attended the Pacific Detector Dog Programme graduation yesterday at the New Zealand Police Dog training centre in Trentham.

Of the three graduating agencies, Customs was particularly proud to support a graduate from Fiji Revenue and Customs Service. Senior Customs Officer, Roko Volau, graduated with his first operational dog, 16-month-old Detector Dog Ike.

Graduates were from New Zealand Police, Fijian Police and Fijian Customs.

A reminder to all Declarants that you do not need to advise Trade Assurance via email that documents have been attached to TSW.

Trade Assurance is aiming to reduce time and resources spent on processing emails and focus more on processing entries. Your attention to this is much appreciated.

Customs is currently transitioning to a new credit card payment portal with a new service provider.  While everything is being done to ensure that this happens in a timely manner, the option to pay by credit card will not be available until 2024. 

We apologise for any inconvenience and advise that, during this time, customers are required to pay Customs through internet banking.  It is important to follow our internet banking instructions precisely to ensure that payments can be processed correctly, reducing the risk of any delays.

Every 20 November, the world commemorates World Children's Day, an occasion to promote and celebrate children's rights and welfare. Yet the increasing threat and risk of online sexual exploitation means many children remain vulnerable to abuse.

In New Zealand, a partnership between the New Zealand Customs Service, New Zealand Police and Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) works to identify child victims and target offenders involved in the online sexual abuse of children, in New Zealand and across the world. 

This week the European Parliament ratified the EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with New Zealand. This unlocks access to one of the world's biggest and most lucrative markets. 

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has published the key points from New Zealand's FTA with the EU.

From 11 December 2023 changes to the steel research levy, which applies to all items listed in Schedule 2 of the Heavy Engineering Research Levy Act, 1978, will increase levy rates from $10/tonne to $20/tonne.

From 1 January 2024 changes to the Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Goods) Levy will increase levy rates across all items.

The Climate Change (Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Levies) Amendment Regulations 2023 (Schedule 1 and 2) set out the levy rate changes. Minor updates to item descriptions and tariff codes are included in Schedule 2.