Which permit do I need?

Single export permits are issued for the permanent export of a fixed quantity of specified items in a single shipment.

The permit is valid for a three-month window from the date it is issued.

Temporary export permits are issued for a fixed quantity of specified items temporarily leaving New Zealand with the intention of return to the owner e.g. for a trade exhibition.

Generally, the export item will be in the care of the owner (sales representative, firearm owner etc), although items may be exported temporarily to a third party e.g. for the purposes of trial or repair by a third party.

The permit is valid for a three-month window from the date it is issued.

A condition of a temporary permit is that MFAT Export Controls is notified when the goods have been returned to New Zealand.

Multiple export permits are issued for the export of a fixed quantity of controlled items that will be exported in several shipments over an extended period up to 18 months in duration.

Exporters may be required, as a condition of their permit, to provide information to MFAT on the amounts of goods exported under the multiple permit, according to a set six-monthly reporting timetable.

An exporter may apply for a general consent to export specific listed items to a country or countries. They are usually approved for exporters with a business case that justifies the use of a general consent i.e. a sufficient volume of goods.

For Wassenaar member countries, this gives approval to the exporter to export any volume of the specified products to any end-user in the approved countries over a period of up to 24 months.

Normally general consents are only granted for other export control member countries but applications are considered for other countries. In these cases, each end user must be specified.

Every six months exporters must provide information to MFAT on the types and amount of goods exported, and the end-users who have received items under the General consent.

In certain cases MFAT may waive the reporting requirement and instead require that records be kept. 

The refusal to grant a general consent for a particular country does not indicate that MFAT will not allow exports of a particular item to that country; only that we need to examine each application individually. The exporter can still apply for a single or multiple export permit to a specific end-user.