Certification Procedure for Trade Documents
A wide variety of trade documents can be certified by the Chamber of Commerce Southland.
These include, amongst others, documents such as Certificates of Origin, Commercial Invoices, and any other documents that may be required by the exporter or the buyer (eg. a packing slip, Certificate of Free Sale, Certificate of Manufacture, Invoices), or required for the overseas customs and/or health authorities (eg. health certificate, Halal certificate).
Certification procedure.
Important: All Documentation
Before being able to have any documentation authorised and verified by the Chamber of Commerce Southland you will need to sign 'a certificate of formal Indemnity & understandings' this includes specimen signatures of person authorised by your company to sign such documents.
You can contact the Chamber Office 03-2187188 to get this form drawn up or down load the pdf file here
fillout and post to
the Southland Chamber of Commerce
PO Box 856
The Business Centre
Menzies Building
2 Esk St
Invercargill
or fax to 03-218-7927.
All Documents
When preparing all documents make sure you fill in all the relevant information to ensure it complies with any specific requirements, from importing countries, banks, government authorities or as specified on the Letter of Credit.
Double check all the details before submitting the document to the Chamber for certification.
You can either deliver the documents in person to the Menzies building 2 Esk St Invercargill, or post the number of copies you require to:
Chamber of Commerce Southland
PO Box 856 Invercargill.
Alternatively, you can e-mail the completed template to:
export@commercesouth.com indicating in your e-mail how many copies you require, we will then post the hard copies back to you.
When forwarding a document for certifications don’t forget to add the extra copy which will be retained on our files as well.
How Long does it Take.
Documents are usually processed within 16 office hours of receiving them.
Their return can be by your pickup or organised via post or a courier pack, if you supply it.
Allow a 48 hour turn around as standard
we will do our best to be within this -
sometime we can do this at presentation but do not rely on this being normal. Not all Chamber staff are authorise to prepare, sign or verify documents and maybe absent from the office.
The Fee:
Certifying all documents is $25.00 plus GST per set of documents.
Non members must pay before documents are certified.
Members can be invoiced monthly. Payment can be made by cash or cheque made out to the Chamber of Commerce Southland..
most commonly requested
Certificates of Origin
The most commonly requested are Certificates of Origin. Certificates of Origin are used for goods shipped to overseas countries to certify that the goods are of New Zealand origin, and also allow the Customs service of the importing country to determine the applicable tariff. In some markets and for some products they are compulsory and goods will not be cleared by customs without the Certificate of Origin.
In the case of Certificates of Origin each set of certificates will be allocated a unique registered number which is to be included in the certificate. This number can be pre-issued to you by the Chamber Office so as you can include it in the type set original document during your preparation or it can be added free hand by the Chamber office during the verification process. In the case of electronic verification (excluding pdf files) the Chamber can type the Certification number insert into the file.
Altering a Certificate of Origin
If you are making alterations or replacing Certificates of Origin already numbered and certified by the Chamber you will need to reproduce a new document and obtain a new number and certification from the Chamber for the replacement to be valid.
How to avoid the replacement cost:
If the replacement is physically presented to the Chamber for verification within the same 5 day working week (ie before and including the Friday of the week that the original Chamber Certificate was validadated), then the same registered number maybe used and no charge will be made for the re- verification. It would be advisable to confirm that the number is usable from the the Chamber office first.
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