Retail NZ says New Zealand should consider matching the European Union’s flat \u20ac3 fee which is being applied to each and every retail product exported to the region.<\/p>\n
The tariff, put in place from the beginning of this month, was intended to level the playing field with low-cost global manufacturers like Temu, which undercut retail prices by selling direct to consumers at wholesale prices.<\/p>\n
Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said such a tariff could help protect the local retail market.<\/p>\n
“And this tariff that they are putting in place in the EU is similar to things they are doing in South Africa,” she said.<\/p>\n
“What Europe has done gives us an indicator of what could be done elsewhere and certainty something that could be advantageous in New Zealand.”<\/p>\n
Young said New Zealand retailers generated more than 90 percent of their sales in the local market and would also benefit from greater border protection.<\/p>\n
Still, freight software firm Starshipit’s chief operating officer Abi Bennett estimated hundreds of New Zealand retailers exported products to Europe.<\/p>\n
She said the tariff was just another cost for retailers to deal with.<\/p>\n
“While the European Union’s new customs changes are explicitly designed to curb ultra-low-cost global marketplaces, New Zealand retailers exporting directly to European consumers are caught in the crossfire,” she said.<\/p>\n
Bennett said retailers were already dealing with tighter margins and increased shipping complexity driven by rising international fuel prices, tariff volatility, stricter customs requirements, and increases to fulfilment costs.<\/p>\n
“A three-euro charge sounds small on its own, but because it can apply per item or line item rather than simply per parcel, the costs can compound quickly.<\/p>\n
She said many small and medium-sized e-commerce brands do not possess the financial or operational wiggle room to absorb the additional customs charge, which would be tricky to pass on to customers.<\/p>\n
“The biggest risk is saying nothing at checkout and letting the customer discover extra costs only once the parcel reaches the border.”<\/p>\n
She recommended retailers be upfront about the new charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retail NZ says New Zealand should consider matching the European Union’s flat \u20ac3 fee which is being applied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-512964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}