Auckland, NZ. Preferential trade tariffs promised as part of last year’s Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement are a step closer for New Zealand exporters as TradeWindow has been recognised as a designated certification body by NZ Customs Service to issue certificates of origin under the enabling regulations for the Agreement.

RCEP, ratified by New Zealand in late 2020 came into force last month. It is the world’s largest free trade agreement (FTA), encompassing 15 countries, with 2.3 billion people that together account for US$12.7 trillion of trade in goods and services, or around a quarter of total global trade¹.

The 11 countries already active under the agreement are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Japan, Lao PDR, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. Four further countries; Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Philippines are still in various stages of ratifying the agreement.

TradeWindow is an Auckland-headquartered software company that provides digital solutions for exporters, importers, customs brokers and freight forwarders. This week it is the first third-party to commence issuing New Zealand certificates of origin for the countries now active in the RCEP trading bloc, after last month receiving authorisation by NZ Customs under S435 of the Customs and Excise Act 2018. TradeWindow Origin Ltd had existing authorisation to issue NZ Certificates of Origin under the China and the AANZ FTAs.

TradeWindow CEO AJ Smith says the company is very pleased, as an authorised certifier, to offer New Zealand exporters the opportunity to gain access to possible preferential trade tariffs under the framework of the new agreement.

“It is exciting that RCEP is now in play and we can work alongside exporters on the front line of global trade to unlock the gains of this major new trading bloc for hardworking New Zealand producers, manufacturers and marketers. This week has seen our first RCEP certificates of origin going through for some of our best-known exporters under this new trading framework,” says Mr Smith.

The certificates are offered through TradeWindow Origin Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of TradeWindow, on an a la carte basis, or through TradeWindow’s Prodoc and Cube integrated digital trade platforms. TradeWindow listed on the NZX in November last year.