Private Individuals are able to export from New Zealand up to five sporting firearms and associated ammunition without an export permit. However, you must notify the MFAT Export Controls team prior to the export using the 'Notification of exempted sporting firearms export' form on the exemptions page.
Yes. You do not have to be ready to apply for an export permit to reach out to us for advice. For example, you can call the team for an informal discussion while you are still developing a product, preparing to attend a trade conference in a new market, or considering embarking on a new research project with international collaborators. If there is a chance that export controls apply to your work, contacting us early may save you time and money.
Contact the Export Controls team for advice before abandoning any export plan. It’s possible that you may have misinterpreted how New Zealand Export Controls may apply to your situation, and an export may well be possible. The team will work with you to help make the decision on whether to apply.
The permit forms are interactive PDFs, which work best in Adobe Reader. Make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Reader installed, and that you are opening the form in Adobe Reader, rather than directly in a browser.
When opening the PDF you may see a yellow bar at the top of the Adobe Reader window indicating the PDF has been opened in ‘protected view’, in order to see the form fields you need to click the ‘Enable All Features’ button at the right of the yellow bar.
The Export Controls team uses an electronic extract program to take information from completed PDF permit application forms. This removes the need for data entry by our team, and is faster overall, which is why we prefer to receive electronic applications via email.
However, we will accept printed typed forms which are posted to us.
We prefer you not to send handwritten permit application forms which can be difficult to read and easily misinterpreted.
You should check whether any sanctions apply to your export plans as early as possible to avoid any wasted effort. You certainly need to do this before applying for an export permit. You will need to check both United Nations Sanctions and Russia Sanctions.
If you are contemplating doing business with sanctioned countries you should consider obtaining independent legal advice. A breach of the sanctions regulations is a criminal offence. MFAT is not able to provide you with legal advice.
MFAT regularly releases market intelligence reports, which you can view on our website, and subscribe to. In addition, you may wish to subscribe to commercial publications that cover international developments.
Here in New Zealand, both the scale of our controlled exports and the size of our Export Controls team are comparatively small. Rather than prohibit exports to listed named end users or listed countries, we instead consider every permit application individually.
One of the benefits of New Zealand’s smaller scale is the level of engagement the Export Controls team can offer exporters. If you are an exporter and have concerns or questions about end users, contact the Export Controls team for a conversation. You do not need to be ready to submit an application for an export permit to start a conversation with us.