Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED IMPORTS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1997 NO. 385

STATUTORY RULES 1997 No. 385

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Customs and Consumer Affairs

Customs Act 1901

Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations (Amendment)

Section 50 of the Customs Act 1901 (the Act) provides in part that the Governor-General may make regulations prohibiting the importation of goods into Australia.

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

The purpose of regulations 2 and 3 is to implement the Commonwealth's responsibilities and obligations accepted under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer to control the importation and exportation of ozone depleting substances.

The importation of ozone-depleting substances is controlled under the Ozone Protection Act 1989. However, the Ozone Protection Act 1989 does not contain any provision for these prohibitions to be enforced at the customs border. The proposed amendments to the Regulations would make the ozone depleting substances which are specified under the Ozone Protection Act 1989 prohibited imports under the Customs Act 1901, thus allowing illegal imports of these substances to be seized by Customs officers at the border.

The regulations prohibit the importation of ozone depleting substances in bulk form., it is not intended at this time to control normal household goods which contain those substances, and the regulations contain exemptions for this purpose.

Regulation 2 inserts a new regulation 5K in the Regulations. New subregulation 5K(3) prohibits the importation of ozone-depleting substances listed in the new Schedule 10 to the Regulations unless a licence to import the goods has been granted under Section 16 of the Ozone Protection Act 1989, and that licence, or a copy of it, is produced to a Collector

New subregulation 5K(2) provides for exemptions to the prohibition by reference to the tariff classification of the exempt goods. Generally speaking, these goods are to be exempt because they are manufactured goods which use the ozone depleting substance as part of their everyday operation (such as a refrigerator), or they are made from a product which contains the substance (such as a plastic). The exemptions apply to the following goods:

Reference in the Customs Tariff Act 1995	General Tariff Description	Example of good granted an exemption
Heading 3004	"Medicaments ... " etc	Asthma Spray Dispensers.
Chapter 39	"Plastics and Articles thereof"	Polystyrene packaging and insulation.
Chapter 84	"Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof"	Refrigerators, air conditioning equipment.

New regulation 3 inserts a new Schedule 10 into the Regulations, which contains the list of ozone-depleting substances to which new regulation 5K applies, specifically:

Chloroflurocarbons       (Part 1),

Halons       (Part 2),

Carbon Tetrachloride       (Part 3),

Methyl Chloroform       (Part 4),

Hydrochloroflurocarbons       (Part 5),

Hydrobromoflurocarbons       (Part 6) and

Methyl Bromide       (Part 7).

The regulations commenced on gazettal.