Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED IMPORTS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1992 NO. 286

STATUTORY RULES 1992 No. 286

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Small Business, Construction and Customs

Customs Act 1901

Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations (Amendment)

Section 50 of the Customs Act 1901 (the Act) provides in part that:

"(1)       The Governor-General may, by regulation, prohibit the importation of goods into Australia.

(2)       The power conferred by the last preceding subsection may be exercised: - ...(c) by prohibiting the importation of goods unless specified conditions or restrictions are complied with."

The Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations (the Pro-Import Regulations) control the importation of the goods specified in the various regulations or the Schedules to the regulations, by prohibiting importation absolutely, or by making importation subject to the permission of a specified person or Minister of State.

The Regulations amend the Pro-Import Regulations to remove the controls on the importation of certain pre-packed goods which could only be imported in specified standard sizes.

Background

Regulation 4AA and Schedule 6 of the Pro-Import Regulations provided for a regime whereby certain pre-packed goods could only be imported in specified standard sizes. The control was introduced in 1973 (Statutory Rules 1973 No. 43) in conjunction with uniform State legislation, to implement a national Packaging Code designed to protect the consumer from misleading and confusing packaging practices and to simplify comparison of value of one package with another of the same commodity.

On 1 April 1992 the Government decided to repeal the controls in regulation 4AA and Schedule 6 in light of the following events.

In 1988 the Industries Assistance Commission (IAC) examined the need for retaining such controls and in its report of February 1989 made a number of recommendations for the reform of packaging and labelling laws in Australia.

These recommendations were considered at a meeting of the Standing Committee of Consumer Affairs Ministers on 20 July 1990 between Commonwealth, State and Territory Ministers. All jurisdictions (with the exception of the Western Australia) consequently signed the Agreement on Uniform Trade Measurement Legislation and Administration. The legislation to be adopted under the agreement deletes all provisions relating to standardised packaging.

The uniform legislation is now operating in New South wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, and the other jurisdictions (except Western Australia) have indicated that it will be operating by 1 January 1993.

In light of the Government's desire for consistent Commonwealth and State legislation and the fact that Australia has recently acceded to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Standards Code (the GATT code), it is important to remove any potential technical barriers to international trade, particularly as the restrictions on packaging sizes in the Pro-Import Regulations could have been in breach of the GATT code as they applied to imported but not domestically produced goods.

The Regulations remove the import controls on pre-packed goods by omitting regulation 4AA and Schedule 6 of the Pro-Import Regulations. Ten definitions which have become redundant due to the repeal of the packaging controls have also been omitted from the interpretation provision in regulation 2.