The New Zealand government will allow toys that meet US and European Union safety standards to be sold here without separate domestic testing. This is a mutual recognition arrangement — if a toy has been certified overseas to meet those standards, it counts as meeting our requirements too.

The shift affects toys currently covered by the Product Safety Standards (Children's Toys) Regulations 2005, which set the mandatory safety rules for toys sold in New Zealand. Rather than maintain our own testing infrastructure, the government is leaning on the international standards that already exist — a practical move given the domestic market is too small to justify running parallel certification systems at the same technical level.

The EU framework is more complicated than it might seem. In April 2025, the European Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement on new toy safety regulations, which has since been formalised as Regulation (EU) 2025/2509. This replaces the longstanding Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC — but the old directive isn't being switched off immediately. Both will run in parallel for a transition period. The EU also updated its list of harmonised standards in December 2025, meaning importers are tracking a moving target.

This raises a practical question the government needs to answer: which EU framework does New Zealand propose to recognise — the old directive, the new regulation, or both during the handover? The answer matters because importers and retailers need to know which certification documents to hold. Recognising only the old directive, then later only the new one, would mean suppliers have to recertify their entire product lines.

The EU's toy safety rules are among the most comprehensive in the world. The new regulation sets the bar higher than the directive it replaces, particularly around digital and connected toys — products with wireless or internet capability. If New Zealand locks in recognition of the new Regulation 2025/2509 rather than the old one, importers will eventually need to meet those tougher requirements. The EU framework has historically been the benchmark other countries reference because its chemical restrictions, mechanical and physical safety requirements, and conformity assessment obligations are detailed enough to work across different markets.

The government has not yet said how recognition will be implemented — whether through amendment to the 2005 Regulations, a separate notice, or another instrument. The scope matters too: whether recognition applies fully or in part, and whether it covers all toy categories, will be confirmed through the legislative process.

For suppliers, the advantage is clear: a toy certified to the European EN 71 standard or the American ASTM F963 standard won't need separate New Zealand paperwork. From a consumer protection angle, there's a potential tension. Once New Zealand locks in recognition of a particular overseas standard, the government's ability to respond quickly to recalls or impose safety requirements above that standard's baseline becomes more constrained — a tradeoff that smaller markets navigate routinely.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) will drive the implementation work. Officials there have been working through a broader consumer law review that examined exactly these questions about how New Zealand's standards fit with international frameworks.