Pitcairn Islands
Pitcairn Islands Cutoms Office
Website: http://www.government.pn/index.php
Email: admin@pitcairn.gov.pn
Address: P.O. Box 105 696 , Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 366 0186
Fax: +64 9 366 0187
Pitcairn Islands Cutoms Office is the one responsible for establishing customs standards in the country. The main responsibilities of this office are the following:
- promoting trade - by developing common industrial standards;
- reducing waste - by simplifying production and distribution;
- protecting the consumer - through the use of licensed marks to identify conformity to standards.
There are many cottage industries on Pitcairn that export goods internationally. Products range from caps, t-shirts, jewelery, carvings, stamps, postcards, books, handmade soaps and cosmetics, coffee, dried fruit, tapa cloth and of course Pitcairn’s gold star award winning pure tropical honey. The inhabitants of this tiny isolated economy exist on fishing, subsistence farming and handicrafts.
Tariffs
Some of the tariffs are the following:
- textiles (silk, wool, cotton, vegetable fiber) – tariff rate 15%;
- apparel, home furnishing - tariff rate 15%;
- carpets and footwear - tariff rate 15%;
- vegetables (bulbs, tubers, tuberous roots, corms, crowns and rhizomes, dormant, etc.) - tariff rate is free;
- fruits (bananas, coconuts, citrus plants) - tariff rate 15 %;
- nuts - tariff rate 45 %;
- oil seeds, soya bins, copra - tariff rate 15 %;
- sugar cane - tariff rate 35 %.
Labeling
The exported or imported products are obliged to have the following information on their labels:
- name, trade name or description;
- name and complete address of manufacturer/packer, importer, country of origin of the imported food;
- net weight, number or volume of contents in metric units;
- distinctive batch, lot or code number;
- month and year of manufacture and packaging;
- month and year by which the product is best consumed;
- information about pharmaceutical and industrial products must be in English;
- if food products have been genetically modified (GM) this must be indicated in the label.
Documentation
Basic import documentation required by the Pitcairn Islands Customs office includes:
- Import Declaration (prepared and signed by a customs broker);
- Commercial Invoice (original plus four copies to be presented in English);
- Airway Bill;
- Bill of Lading (to be presented in triplicate);
- Commercial license number;
- Phytosanitary Certificate and previous authorization from the Pitcairn Islands Food Safety Authority;
- Certificate of Free Sale (if required);
- Certificate of Origin (in the case of application for duty free treatment).
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