On April 22nd, 2021, the New Zealand Customs Service published the Tariff Concession Approvals, Withdrawals and Declines Notice (No. 16) 2021 granting general tariff concessions on plasterboard and an industrial storage cabinet. The affected products were classified under the tariff subheadings 3921.90.19 and 3926.90.61, and 9403.20.19 respectively. With the new regulation, the affected goods now enjoy a 0% import duty. 

According to the World Trade Organization tariff download facility, the prior average tariffs on each of the products were 5% and 1.9%, and 2.5% respectively.  

Tariff concessions are generally approved for goods where no suitable alternative goods are produced locally in New Zealand. In the case of the general tariff concessions adopted in Notice (No. 16) 2021, the concessions were requested by Inter Build Products (1991) Limited and Complete Paints Limited.

The tariff concession retrospectively entered into force on December 1st, 2020 for the tariff subheadings 3921.90.19 and 3926.90.61, and February 1st, 2021 for the tariff subheading 9403.20.19.