New Zealand imports of alkaline metals, rare earth-metals, and mercury

Imports: All goods and services purchased by New Zealand residents from non-residents. Merchandise imports are goods (including goods leased for a year or more; excluding goods for repair) imported into New Zealand from other countries. This includes re-imports.
Value for duty (vfd): Value for duty (the value of imports before insurance and freight costs are added). This is the value we use for goods imports.
Cost including insurance and freight (cif): The value of imported goods plus insurance and international freight, declared by the importer to Customs.
Country of origin: The country from which the goods originated or were manufactured (that is not the country of export).

http://datainfoplus.stats.govt.nz/Item/nz.govt.stats/6ed114da-3571-40d4-a89f-932068a4c753

Aggregated Harmonised System (HS) codes may include confidential 10 digit codes, in which case the summed data will exclude the confidential value(s).
https://www.stats.govt.nz/about-us/legislation-policies-and-guidelines/trade-confidentiality/

Unlike the Exports dataset, this dataset refers to country of origin (not country of export).
This data includes re-imports, which are goods we have exported from New Zealand to another country, that are then for whatever reason brought back to New Zealand.
This could include items sold overseas and then sold back to someone in New Zealand, or exports that are sent overseas and rejected at the border due to not being up to specifications etc.
Some goods are also sent to another country to be sold but then some may not get sold or may be faulty so are sent back to New Zealand. It is impractical for Stats NZ to track down when goods have first left the country, so for consistency all included as re-imports.

This specific dataset combines all countries of origin.

All confidential HS codes, or HS codes not traded for the month have been excluded.

Imports specifically exclude:
- temporary imports into New Zealand such as tourist effects, returnable samples and containers, and transit goods
- fish landed by New Zealand vessels
- goods (other than motor vehicles) for officials of overseas countries
- passenger baggage imported permanently
- consignments valued under $1,000
- currency transactions in gold, silver, current coin
- goods on loan
- replacements, short-shipped or short packed goods recorded previously
- goods imported for use by foreign armed forces.

From January 2017, Stats NZ compiled overseas merchandise trade (OMT) data using the Harmonised System classification (HS2017). They used HS2017 in OMT from January 2017, and before January 2017, HS2012 applies.
The classification changes mean that data users need to take care when analysing time-series data. As with the change from HS2012 to HS2017, a number of new codes were introduced and a number of codes became obsolete. These changes took effect from the January 2017 month.

At URL provided, download all aggregated monthly import files from '2019 imports HS10.zip' to '2010 imports HS10.zip'. For processing purposes, Figure.NZ re-organised this data into one large spreadsheet and built two pivot tables. These pivot tables are annual. They each cover different levels of granularity of trade data (4-digit codes, and 2-digit codes).

Overseas Merchandise Trade statistics provide statistical information on the importing and exporting of merchandise goods between New Zealand and other countries. Merchandise trade includes goods which add to or subtract from the material resources in New Zealand as a result of their movement in or out of the country. Data is obtained from export and import entry documents lodged with the New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS).

The purpose of Overseas Merchandise Trade statistics is to provide statistical information on the importing and exporting of merchandise goods between New Zealand and other countries

Stats NZ obtain data from export and import entry documents lodged with New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS).
NZ Customs Service provides import values in NZD to Stats NZ after converting from the foreign currency when import documents are processed. NZCS sets the exchange rates each fortnight. These rates are prepared 11 days before the start of the fortnight, so have a lag of 11 to 25 days compared with the daily rates published by the Reserve Bank. For imports, a rise in the NZD has a downward influence on prices and an upward influence on quantities. The combined influence on values can be either positive or negative. For imports, a rise in the New Zealand dollar has a downward influence on prices and an upward influence on quantities. The combined influence on values can be either positive or negative.