South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement (SPARTECA)
The South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement (SPARTECA) is a non-reciprocal trade agreement in which NZ (together with Australia) offers preferential tariff treatment for specified products that are the produce or manufacture of the Pacific Islands Forum countries (known as the ‘Forum Island Countries’).
There is no preferential duty rate for NZ goods exported to a Forum Island Country.
The Forum Island Countries are the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Forum Island Countries duty rates are identified under the abbreviation ‘Pac’ (not FIC) in The Working Tariff Document of New Zealand.
For more information on the Rules of Origin and the agreement, see Fact Sheet 8 (PDF 701 KB).
Claiming Preference in NZ
An NZ importer may make a claim for preferential tariff treatment on the basis of a certificate of origin, a declaration of origin, or other evidence sufficient to prove that the goods satisfy the relevant rules of origin provisions. If requested by Customs, an importer claiming preference must be able to provide sufficient evidence to substantiate the claim.