The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) is confident cars imported to New Zealand from the area near Japan's leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will not be contaminated with radioactive material.
Japanese and New Zealand authorities have carried out extensive testing on any machinery, including vehicles, since Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami last month and following nuclear disaster, NZTA national vehicle manager Don Hutchinson said.
"The industry and potential vehicle buyers here can be assured that the appropriate controls and checks are already in place so that it would be highly unlikely that any imported vehicle would pose a potential health risk," Mr Hutchinson said.
There was no need for the NZTA to introduce specific screening for radiation on imported vehicles, he said.
NZTA had been advised that any small traces of radioactivity on vehicles could be removed by washing them.
But the organisation would continue to monitor the situation, he said.
