The United States has confirmed a 12.% tariff on New Zealand exports, effective from 4:01pm today, replacing the temporary 10% Section 122 levy that was due to expire.
New Zealand is one of 60 economies named in the US Trade Representative's investigation into forced labour in global supply chains, alongside Australia, the United Kingdom, India, China and others. In a statement today, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said decades of moral "suasion" have not eradicated forced labour from global supply chains.
New Zealand falls into the higher 12.5% bracket, while a smaller group of countries - including Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan and the UK - received the lower 10% rate, based on steps the US says those economies have taken toward a forced-labour import prohibition.
New Zealand's government had previously disputed the forced-labour rationale for the proposed increase, when it was still at the consultation stage.
As with Australia's parallel increase today, the product most directly relevant here is trade credit insurance, which responds to non-payment when a buyer defaults or becomes insolvent - not to the tariff cost itself. If the higher landed cost of New Zealand goods squeezes US buyer margins or demand, that's a receivables risk, not a cargo or business interruption one; standard cargo and BI wordings don't typically respond to a buyer simply failing to pay.
For brokers with clients selling into the US, the practical questions worth raising at the next renewal are the same as for Australian-facing exporters: how concentrated is the client's US buyer book, does their trade credit programme (if they have one) actually cover the buyers most exposed to the new rate, and have logistics or customs delays changed enough to matter for cargo cover.
