{"id":541433,"date":"2026-07-24T05:20:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541433\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T05:20:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:20:29","slug":"not-credible-us-hits-new-zealand-with-higher-12-5-tariff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541433\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Not credible’: US hits New Zealand with higher 12.5% tariff"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US has imposed a new 12.5% tariff on New Zealand, as President Donald Trump looks to get around a Supreme Court decision<\/a> that struck down his earlier “Liberation Day” tariffs.<\/p>\n

New Zealand joins 59 other economies, including the UK and Australia, in facing tariffs ranging from 10% to 12.5%.<\/p>\n

US trade representative Jamieson Greer said the new tariffs were designed to combat goods produced with forced labour \u2013 a claim that Trade Minister Todd McClay rebuked last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under the new regime, countries assessed as having laws in place to combat forced labour, but not enforcing them effectively, face a 10% tariff \u2013 a group that includes the UK, Canada and Mexico. <\/p>\n

Countries without such laws on the books, including New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, India and dozens of others, face the higher 12.5% rate.<\/p>\n

When US President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariffs were announced in April<\/a> last year, New Zealand’s initial rate was 10%.<\/p>\n

The new tariffs are set to come into effect from just after 4pm on Friday (NZ time), when the 10% tariffs were set to expire.<\/p>\n

‘Extremely disappointing… just not credible’ \u2013 NZ Govt on tariffs<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was, “extremely disappointing to see new US tariffs on New Zealand and 59 other countries. <\/p>\n

“The US investigation did not provide meaningful evidence to support claims in relation to forced labour. Tariffs are not the way \u2013 they drive up costs and uncertainty for businesses,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s why we\u2019re pursuing trade agreements all over the world \u2013 to provide our exporters with security and keep growing our economy.”<\/p>\n

In a statement to 1News, Trade Minister Todd McClay said the decision to impose tariffs was “very disappointing but not unexpected”, adding also that New Zealand rejected the basis for the move.<\/p>\n

\"Todd<\/p>\n

Todd McClay. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“The US process was not rigorous. It\u2019s just not credible that imports created with forced labour play any measurable role in New Zealand\u2019s economy.”<\/p>\n

McClay said New Zealand engaged in good faith with US authorities but the investigation “provides a legal pretext for broad tariffs rather than effectively combating forced labour”.<\/p>\n

“These actions create more uncertainty at a time when the world trading system is under real pressure. It is more important than ever that like-minded countries work together to strengthen trade and investment including reducing barriers that make it easier for everybody to trade.”<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Ryan Fox arrives back in NZ, and the political heckle that\u2019s going viral. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US has imposed a new 12.5% tariff on New Zealand, as President Donald Trump looks to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69,66],"class_list":["post-541433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541433","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=541433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}