Exporting to New Zealand under the India–NZ FTA: how your goods qualify for duty-free entry

Updated 19 Oct 2026

The India–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement takes effect on 20 October 2026. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal announced the date on 21 September 2026, and New Zealand's official summary says New Zealand will remove tariffs on Indian goods from the day the agreement enters into force. Before this, some Indian products paid New Zealand duties of up to 10%.

The zero duty is not automatic. Your buyer in New Zealand gets it only if your goods meet the agreement's rules of origin and you send a valid proof of origin. This guide explains how that works for a small or mid-size exporter.

Who this applies to

Indian manufacturers and merchant exporters shipping goods to New Zealand from 20 October 2026.
Any sector: textiles and apparel, leather and footwear, engineering goods, processed food, auto components, gems and jewellery, chemicals and more.
Your New Zealand importer, who claims the preference at their customs. The importer saves the duty, so the FTA is a selling point in your quote.

Step 1: Find your product's rule of origin

CBIC has notified the agreement's origin rules as the Customs Tariff (Determination of Origin of Goods under the Free Trade Agreement between India and New Zealand) Rules, 2026, by Notification No. 82/2026-Customs (N.T.) dated 12 October 2026, in force from 20 October 2026. The product-specific rules are in Annexure A and are written in HS 2022 codes, so classify your product in HS 2022 first.

Each product has one (or a combination) of these rules:

Wholly obtained (WO): grown, harvested or caught entirely in India, for example many fresh fruits, vegetables and cereals.
Change in tariff classification: your imported inputs must fall under a different chapter (CC), heading (CTH) or sub-heading (CTSH) from the finished product.
Qualifying value content (QVC): a minimum share of the product's value must be Indian or New Zealand.
Specified process: for example, primary iron and steel must be melted and poured in India or New Zealand.

As summarised from Annexure A, typical QVC thresholds include 40% for apparel and woven fabrics (with CTH), spices and processed cocoa; 45% for many chemicals and aluminium articles (with CTSH); and much lower figures for jewellery (3.5% for plain gold or platinum jewellery, 7% for diamond-studded jewellery). Check the exact line for your product in Annexure A before you rely on these.

How QVC is calculated

Rule 6 allows two methods:

Build-down: (FOB value − value of non-originating materials) ÷ FOB value × 100
Build-up: value of originating materials ÷ FOB value × 100

Under the Annexure headnotes, the required percentage is 10 points lower when you use build-up, except for Chapter 71 (gems and jewellery), where the stated figure applies under either method.

Step 2: Check the traps that cancel origin

Insufficient operations (Rule 8): simple packing, labelling, sorting, cutting, dilution or simple assembly of imported goods does not make them Indian.
De minimis (Rule 9): if you fail the tariff-change rule only because of a small amount of non-originating material, you can still qualify if that material is no more than 10% of FOB value (for Chapters 50–63, 10% of weight or value).
Cumulation (Rule 5): New Zealand-origin materials you use (for example New Zealand wool) can count as originating, if you can document their origin.
Transport through a third country (Rule 15): goods shipped via a hub such as Singapore keep their origin only if they stay under customs control there and undergo nothing beyond unloading, storage, repacking or splitting. Keep the through bill of lading or transit documents.

Step 3: Get the proof of origin

Rule 16 accepts two forms:

Certificate of Origin (CoO) issued by the authorised issuing body, signed and sealed, with the data set out in Annexure B. New Zealand has published the CoO template as Annex 3B of the agreement.
Origin declaration with the details in Annexure C and a unique number. On the Indian side only a status holder may make one; ordinary exporters and producers cannot self-declare until a future review of the agreement.

Key timing rules:

A proof of origin is valid for 12 months from issue or completion.
It should be issued before or at importation. In exceptional cases a CoO can be issued later, marked "ISSUED RETROSPECTIVELY", up to 12 months after importation.
If a CoO is lost, you can ask for a certified copy within its validity.

Exportsmitra could not confirm, at the time of writing, which Indian agencies DGFT has authorised to issue CoOs under this agreement. Check DGFT's Appendix 2A (agencies authorised to issue preferential CoOs) and the eCoO platform before your first shipment, and apply early.

Step 4: Keep records for five years

Rule 23 requires exporters, producers and importers to keep origin records for at least five years: bills of materials, purchase invoices for inputs, costing sheets showing your QVC, production records and shipping documents. Electronic records are fine if you can retrieve them.

If customs in the importing country questions a certificate, the rules set short deadlines: 30 days to respond on the authenticity of a certificate, and 60 days (extendable by 30) to answer a request for information. Preference can be denied if the information is not given.

Worked example

A Tiruppur exporter ships knitted cotton T-shirts (Chapter 61) to an Auckland retailer. Assume the rule for the product is CTH plus 40% QVC (check Annexure A for the exact line).

Item	Value (Rs)
FOB value of the shipment	10,00,000
Indian cotton fabric, labour, overheads, profit	8,50,000
Imported trims and dyes (non-originating)	1,50,000

Tariff change: the imported trims and dyes are classified outside the T-shirt heading, so the CTH test is met.
QVC by build-down: (10,00,000 − 1,50,000) ÷ 10,00,000 × 100 = 85%, well above 40%.
The exporter obtains a CoO, sends it with the invoice and keeps the costing sheet on file for five years.

If the same exporter had imported finished T-shirts and only relabelled and repacked them, the goods would not qualify, because those are insufficient operations.

Common mistakes

Classifying in the wrong HS version. Annexure A uses HS 2022.
Sending a non-preferential certificate of origin instead of the FTA-specific one.
Invoice number, HS code or exporter name on the CoO not matching the commercial invoice.
Transhipping through a third country without transit documents.
Calculating QVC on ex-works instead of FOB value, or leaving out imported packing materials.
Not keeping supplier invoices and costing sheets to back up the origin claim.

What to do this week

Tell your New Zealand buyers that duty-free entry applies from 20 October 2026 for qualifying goods.
Find your product's rule in Annexure A of Notification 82/2026-Customs (N.T.) and do the QVC calculation on a recent shipment.
Confirm the CoO issuing agency for this agreement and how it accepts applications.
Exportsmitra suggests adding an FTA line to your quotes for New Zealand so buyers can see the duty they save.

Sources

Last checked: 19 October 2026.

Drafted with AI help from public sources.

Spotted something out of date? Tell us

Our guides are drafted with the help of AI and checked against official sources, but rules change often and mistakes can slip through. Please confirm with DGFT, CBIC, RBI, ECGC or your bank before you act. General information only, not legal or financial advice.