Access Denied: Will Amazon stop shipping to New Zealand too?
Bruce Bernacchi FCA
Partner at Dentons New Zealand. Experienced tax adviser, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, corporate and international taxes, technology companies and the financial services industry.
Disturbing news from Australia overnight. From 1 July 2018 Amazon will no longer ship directly to Australian customers from the US or UK. Direct shipping will only be available from the Amazon Australia website, which has far fewer items for sale. Australian customers will be forced to use a re-shipping service if they want to obtain US or UK based goods. This is all being driven by the imposition of GST in Australia on low-value imports. With the NZ Government proposing to do the same thing from 1 October 2019 will we too be faced with a loss of full access to Amazon products? The NZ Government needs to proceed on this proposal very cautiously or risk a massive consumer backlash. This is not an issue of price, it's about fair access to a far wider range of products than can be accessed from New Zealand retailers.
See some of the Australian press on this here