Vehicles, parts, and accessories, including more than 260,000 cars, accounted for 10 percent of our $67 billion of imports. This was the second-largest category of goods imports for the June 2016 year. Vehicles were our largest goods import from Japan, the European Union (EU), and Australia, and our third-largest from the United States (US).
We also imported vehicles, parts and accessories from some smaller trading partners. In the June 2016 year, vehicles were our largest import from Thailand, our second-largest from Korea, and our fifth-largest import from Taiwan.
“Vehicle imports from Thailand have tripled since 2012, and we now import more cars from Thailand than from the US or Australia,” international statistics senior manager Jason Attewell said.
“While we still import cars from Japan and Europe, home to many large car brands, as they restructure their global operations many of our cars are rolling in from other countries. Thailand has become the ‘Detroit of the East’, with producers such as Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Mercedes shifting gear and opening factories there in recent years,” Mr Attewell said.
Electronics from China our top import category
Our largest single import from one source in the June 2016 year was electrical machinery and equipment from China. We imported $2.0 billion worth of electronics (mainly cellphones) from China in the June 2016 year.
“Historically, vehicles were our biggest goods imports, but since December 2015 we’ve imported more electronics from China than vehicles from either Japan or the EU,” Mr Attewell said.
Service imports mainly from Australia
Australia was the main source of services imports in the June 2016 year. Nearly half this $5.0 billion of services came from New Zealanders travelling to Australia. Other services imported from Australia in the June 2016 year included management fees, research and development, and transportation services. The EU provided significant transportation services (eg sea and air transport), and the US provided considerable business services (eg management fees, and research and development services) in the June 2016 year.
Trade shows annual surplus
New Zealand’s trade with the rest of the world was a $1.7 billion surplus for the June 2016 year. Total exports of goods and services were $70.9 billion, while total imports were $67.2 billion.
New Zealand recorded trade surpluses with 16 of our top 25 trading partners in the June 2016 year, including Australia, China, the US, and Japan.
Goods and Services Trade by Country: Year ended June 2016 – for more data and analysis
