Manufacturers and importers and the new overseas products pathways

Last updated: 29 August 2025

Inside of an importer or manufacturer's warehouse showing stacks of building supplies on pallets.

Check how you can use the new Building Product Specifications, Endorsed Standards and Approved Products Certified Overseas to improve acceptance of your overseas products.

For manufacturers and importers, the new overseas products and standards compliance pathways deliver real advantages. For example, they will save you time and money as they will remove the need to gain additional Aotearoa New Zealand-based certification and verification (such as CodeMark or appraisals).

Benefits of the new compliance pathways

Building Product Specifications benefits

You can choose to test your building products against widely accepted overseas standards cited in the Building Product Specifications, giving easier access to overseas markets and greater confidence that your product can be accepted for use in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Approved Products Certified Overseas benefits

Approved Products Certified Overseas are overseas building products recognised by the Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation (MBIE). If successfully evaluated, MBIE will issue a recognition notice for a product or group of products.

The recognition notices will be published on our Approved Products Certified Overseas web page, ready to be specified in building designs.

You can have more confidence in your products that are recognised as Approved Products Certified Overseas as they are deemed to comply with the Building Code for use in Aotearoa New Zealand without additional tests.

Endorsed Standards benefits

Endorsed Standards are recognised groups of standards from trusted overseas standards organisations and standards certification schemes.

If successfully evaluated, MBIE will issue a recognition notice for the group of standards or standards certification schemes. The recognition notices will be published on our Endorsed Standards web page.

An Endorsed Standard can be relied on for supporting evidence of compliance with the Building Code. Aotearoa New Zealand-based manufacturers and importers will need to:

make particular information about the building products they supply to the Aotearoa New Zealand market publicly available according to the building product information requirements, and
provide evidence for any claims they make about their products.

An application process to have overseas certified products recognised is currently in development. We will be releasing more information on this process in 2026.

How these new compliance pathways work for you

How the Building Product Specifications works for you

If your product has been tested or manufactured according to a building product standard or specification cited in the Building Product Specifications, it is deemed to comply with the Building Code when used with the relevant acceptable solution or verification method.

This means your product may be more readily specified by designers, architects and builders. And must be accepted by building consent authorities (BCAs) as complying with the Building Code. This is as long as your product (no matter where it is from):

complies with the cited standard in the Building Product Specifications for its specific purpose, and
is used in building work which complies with the relevant acceptable solution or verification method.

The Building Product Specifications compliance pathway will provide you with more opportunities to import products that will be readily accepted for use here in Aotearoa New Zealand.

How Approved Products Certified Overseas work for you

Your product with an overseas certification can be recognised by MBIE and added to our Approved Products Certified Overseas web page.

Products recognised as Approved Products Certified Overseas will be deemed to comply with the Building Code, provided the product is:

specified according to its intended use, and
within any conditions or limitations of the recognition.

This means you can have more confidence your products will be recognised for use in Aotearoa New Zealand without requiring additional tests such as a CodeMark certificate or an appraisal.

How Endorsed Standards can work for you

If your product has been tested or manufactured according to a standard that has been issued by a standards organisation on the recognised groups of standards, it goes on our Endorsed Standards web page.

If your product has an Endorsed Standard, it improves its chances of being specified in a building design. This is because designers and specifiers will have confidence that the standard has been published by a reputable standards organisation.

A BCA may consider the relevant standard when assessing a consent application to ensure: