Surprise 15% US tariff on NZ goods goes into effect
Thursday, 7 August 2025
The surprise 15% tariff on New Zealand goods imported by US companies has gone into effect, as the Trump administration officially begins levying higher import taxes on dozens of countries.
US President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order for new tariff rates on a wide swathe of US trading partners that had not reached a trade deal with his administration.
The tariff rate for New Zealand - 15% - is an increase from the “baseline” 10% that Trump announced during his “Liberation Day” event on April 2. Australia dodged the hike, with its rate staying at the 10% level.
The tariffs were originally scheduled for April 9, but were then postponed, first to July 9, then August 1, and finally August 7 at midnight (4pm NZ time).
“IT’S MIDNIGHT!!!,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network shortly after the tariffs went into effect. “BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TARIFFS ARE NOW FLOWING INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!”
Trade Minister Todd McClay told RNZ last week that New Zealand was in a “very long list” of countries that would be paying a 15% tariff, and that he would be “making the case” for why New Zealand should not be in that category.
Many New Zealand exporters to the US had been saying they had been able to absorb a 10% tariff, and in many cases pass it on, but at 15% “it is going to start having a greater effect upon our exporters,” McClay said.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis told reporters “we will be talking to our friends in the United States” about the higher tariff rate, but brushed off the idea of implementing reciprocal tariffs on US goods.
Trump intends the tariffs to bring back manufacturing to the US, while also forcing other countries to reduce their trade barriers to US exports. He argues that foreign exporters will pay the cost of the tariffs, but so far economists have found that most are being paid by US companies.
“I think the growth is going to be unprecedented,” Trump said on Wednesday afternoon (local time). He added that the US was “taking in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs,” but he couldn’t provide a specific figure for revenues because “we don’t even know what the final number is” regarding tariff rates.
The lead-up to the tariffs kicking in fit the slapdash nature of Trump’s policy on the taxes, which have been variously rolled out, walked back, delayed, increased, imposed by letter and frantically renegotiated.
The process has been so muddled that officials for key US trade partners were unclear at the start of the week whether the tariffs would begin on Thursday or Friday. The language of last week’s executive order to delay the start of tariffs from August 1 said the higher tax rates would start in seven days.
The US president’s use of a 1977 law to declare an economic emergency to impose the tariffs is also under challenge. An impending ruling from a US appeals court last week could cause Trump to find other legal justifications if judges say he exceeded his authority.
Even people who worked with Trump during his first term are sceptical that things will go smoothly for the economy, such as Paul Ryan, the former Republican House speaker, who has emerged as a Trump critic.
“There’s no sort of rationale for this other than the president wanting to raise tariffs based upon his whims, his opinions,” Ryan told CNBC on Wednesday. “I think choppy waters are ahead because I think they’re going to have some legal challenges.”
– Stuff with AP