Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Customs Tariff Amendment (2012 Harmonized System Changes) Bill 2011. The bill amends the Customs Tariff Act 1995 as a result of the fourth review by the World Customs Organisation of the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System by effecting changes required by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, relating to food security; the Rotterdam Convention, relating to hazardous chemicals and pesticides; and the Montreal protocol, relating to halogenated hydrocarbons.

As noted in the bill's explanatory memorandum, the harmonised system is a system of goods classification based on six-digit codes. The six-digit classification uniquely identifies all traded goods and commodities and is uniform across all countries that have adopted the harmonised system. The harmonised system multipurpose goods classification is used as the foundation for customs tariffs and for the collection of international trade statistics. It comprises about 5,000 commodity groups, each identified by a six-digit code arranged in a legal and logical structure, with well-defined rules to achieve uniform classification.

Australia is a signatory to the harmonised system. Since 1988, the harmonised system has formed the basis of Australia's commodity classifications for traded goods, both imports and exports. The World Customs Organisation, the administering body, reassesses the harmonised system every five years to reflect changes in industry practice, technological advances and variations in international trade patterns. The World Customs Organisation completed the fourth review of the harmonised system in June 2010. The harmonised system requires Australia, along with other countries who are signatories, to apply these changes from 1 January next year.

The bill's EM also notes that this bill will make 800 technical amendments to existing classifications in the Customs Tariff Act and states:

The amendments concentrate particularly on environmental and social issues that are of global concern, including the use of the Harmonized System for identifying goods of specific importance to the food security programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Other amendments from the fourth review of the harmonised system have resulted from changes in international trade patterns. The explanatory memorandum further states:

These include deleting more than 40 subheadings due to the low volume of trade in specific products, separately identifying certain commodities in either existing or new headings, and reflecting advances in technology where possible. Finally, a number of amendments aim to clarify texts to ensure uniform application of the Harmonized System Nomenclature.

The coalition supports the passage of this bill, which gives effect to the harmonised system changes while maintaining existing levels of tariff protection and margins of tariff preference. The coalition supports efforts at progressing international trade which we believe will deliver the greatest benefit to the global economy and to Australia. We therefore commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context